Some people have levels of strength, grit and determination that challenge credibility, and can only be called heroic.
 |
Director George Clooney clearly has a soft spot for period sports stories — his 2008 dramedy, Leatherheads, is seriously underrated — and he has a clear winner here. Although both book and film focus on scrappy Joe Rantz (played here by Callum Turner), scripter Mark L. Smith has narrowed the window to the 1935-36 academic year.
Clooney opens with a sweet prologue that echoes the similar “bookending” that Steven Spielberg employed in 1998’s Saving Private Ryan. We then flash back to the mid-1930s, with the United States mired in the Great Depression.
Joe, on his own since age 14, finished high school and somehow managed to get enrolled at the University of Washington. He’s an attentive student, despite living in the remnants of a car, studying by the light of a lantern, and frequently going hungry. Employment has been spotty, and not quite enough to maintain tuition fees.
As this saga begins, he’s given a 14-day notice to pay the balance, or face expulsion.
Best friend Roger Morris (Sam Strike), equally poor and struggling, learns of potential salvation: obtaining a spot on the university rowing team, which would include food, lodging and enough money to handle tuition.
But Joe and Roger are hardly unique; they’re among literally hundreds of young men who show up for tryouts. Coach Al Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerton, note-perfect) and Assistant Coach Tom Bolles (James Wolk) calmly explain that the odds are heartbreaking; the one team opening has only eight spots, plus an alternate.
Edgerton masterfully handles Ulbrickson’s initial warning, as he catalogues the degree to which the human body simply wasn’t designed for the amount of punishment inflicted by this sport; it’s a superbly scripted speech, delivered with gently implacable emotion.
Ulbrickson has his own share of troubles. His rowing teams have performed poorly during recent years, and their continuing losses to Cal (UC Berkeley’s) team are particularly galling. He’s given to understand that if things don’t improve, funding may be eliminated.
