Director George Clooney‘s The Boys in the Boat is a gorgeous adaptation of the Depression-era story of a group of poor but scrappy young men who find a slice of glory when they become the USA’s choice to compete in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. It is, to use a well worn cliché, a stand-up-and-cheer tale if ever there was one.

But the primary reason to cheer is the kind of unspoken underlying message within, that this is a sport where it is imperative that everyone in the boat rows as one, in unison and together physically and psychologically. This makes The Boys in the Boat not just enormously entertaining, but also important and relevant to our current world that is more divided, more ripped at the seams, than ever in memory. This movie, based on the 2013 bestseller by Daniel James Brown, assures us that the triumph of the soul is working together, not apart. It is a simple sentiment to be sure, but watching Clooney’s beautifully constructed period piece it is pretty much all you can think about.

Cinematographer Martin Ruhe’s cameras swoon over the finished product once the boat is revealed in a long, slow shot ogling every inch of it. The work of Ruhe (a longtime collaborator of Clooney’s) here overall is sumptuous, employing every possible way to make the spectator sport of it all seem genuinely exciting to watch. The 1936 Olympics is expertly re-created. Two-time Oscar winner Alexandre Desplat’s lovely score avoids the usual beats for this genre and is well matched to what we see on screen. Turner and Robinson are both appealing young actors, giving us all the reason we need to hope they will have a life together.

Producers are Clooney and his Smokehouse partner Grant Heslov. It is a gift for lovers of the kind of movies you thought they just didn’t make anymore.

Prince Siegfried chances upon a flock of swans while out hunting. When one of the swans turns into a beautiful woman, Odette, he is enraptured. But she is under a spell that holds her captive, allowing her to regain her human form only at night.

Von Rothbart, arbiter of Odette's curse, tricks the Prince into declaring his love for the identical Odile and thus breaking his vow to Odette. Doomed to remain a swan forever, Odette has but one way to break the sorcerer's spell.

Out hunting, Prince Siegfried chances upon a flock of swans. One among them transforms into the beautiful human Odette and he is immediately enamoured. But Odette is bound by a spell which keeps her captive as a swan during the day. Can Siegfried free her?

Tchaikovsky’s sensational score combines with the evocative imagination of choreographer Liam Scarlett and designer John Macfarlane to heighten the dramatic pathos of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov’s quintessential ballet classic. Opening in Spring and returning in Summer, Swan Lake remains to this day one of the best-loved works in the classical ballet canon.

Cast: TBC

Choreography: Liam Scarlett after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov

Music: Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky

Additional Choreography: Frederick Ashton