'The Boys in the Boat' review: George Clooney's sports drama is comfortingly familiar, artfully done

It opens with a little boy rowing on a sun-dappled lake and ends with Olympic gold — and in between, “The Boys in the Boat” delivers just about every heartwarming cliché you could want from a movie.

That’s meant as a compliment. Based on Daniel James Brown’s bestselling nonfiction book and directed by George Clooney with a Capra-esque touch, “The Boys in the Boat” feels like a cinematic slice of apple pie at a moment when we could all use a little comfort food. A throwback to the America we used to be, it takes place during the Great Depression, when collective hardship forged resilience, and it upholds the world of sports as a meritocratic ideal. Those are the myths, anyway — and this movie just might make you a believer again.

Its hero is Joe Rantz (Callum Turner), a student at the University of Washington who keeps to himself. He isn’t shy, but shamefacedly poor: He lives in an abandoned car, where he reads his engineering textbooks by kerosene lamplight. Unable to afford even a school cafeteria lunch, Joe joins the school’s rowing team because it comes with a chance for some money. Slowly, however, he realizes that this group of eight (nine if you count their small but mouthy coxswain, Mock, played by Luke Slattery) might have something special.

“Average is not gonna get you a seat on my boat,” thunders coach Al Ulbrickson (a flinty Joel Edgerton). Against all advice, Ulbrickson sets his sights on the 1936 Berlin Olympics. As the team progresses, there will be personal setbacks (Joe gets rattled after bumping into the father who abandoned him) and triumphs (Joe develops a romance with his fourth-grade crush, Joyce, played by Hadley Robinson). We barely get to know the other rowers, though in fairness eight storylines is more than most movies could juggle.

Full of punchy-poetic lines by screenwriter Mark L. Smith and impeccably scored by Alexandre Desplat, “The Boys in the Boat” can really lay it on thick, but in the best possible way. At a moment of crisis, the wise old boatbuilder George (Peter Guinness) shows Joe how to craft a vessel — though of course what he’s really crafting is a big ol’ sports metaphor. “Every piece working with the other,” George muses, running his fingers along the wood. And then: “It’s the same with the crew.” Now that’s movie gold.

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com@raferguzman