I'm not at all a sports fan, but there are plenty of sports movies I enjoy - The Bad News Bears (1976), Rocky (1976) and Hoosiers (1986), to name three. Many rely on familiar tropes (or cliches, if you're churlish) and this one - scripted by Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) from Daniel James Brown's book of the same title - is no exception. Underdog team? Tick. Stirring score? Tick. Training montages? Tick. Tough but fair coach? Tick. Wise mentor (not necessarily the coach)? Tick. Crises that strike the team and at least one of its members at crucial moments? Tick and tick.

But when they're well done, these films can be great entertainment, and the genre has plenty of opportunities for drama.

This film is based on the true story of the American rowing team who competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics and a little research reveals the essentials are largely accurate, which is always good to know.

There's one brief scene with Jesse Owens - who won four gold medals at these Olympics - that is unlikely to have happened but makes a sharp point.

Joe Rantz (Callum Turner, from a couple of the Fantastic Beasts movies) is an impoverished engineering student at the University of Washington, struggling to meet his tuition costs during the Great Depression. An unusual opportunity arises when a call goes out to try out for the university rowing team, with the promise of a job. With no rowing experience but nothing to lose, Joe is among the many hopefuls who sign up, and no surprise, he's among the few to get through.

But that's only the start. The boys have to master the art of rowing itself as well as learn to work together as a crew in their boat, the Husky Clipper. It's built and maintained by George Pocock (Peter Guinness).

Joe helps George with this work as well as juggling classes, training and a budding romance with a childhood crush, fellow student Joyce Sindars (Hadley Robinson).

The head coach, Al Ulbrickson (Aussie Joel Edgerton), is desperate for a win professionally as well as personally. He is gambling that he and his crew will triumph over the elite Ivy League schools with their greater resources to qualify for the Olympics.

George Clooney is best known as an actor, but his work as a director is not too shabby - highlights include Good Night, and Good Luck (2005). He handles this movie well: it moves along nicely and has a feeling of old-fashioned professionalism where telling the story is paramount.

The rowing scenes employ plenty of variety in the shots. Even if you already know the outcome, the climax is exciting.

Edgerton aside, it's not a very starry cast - finding actors willing and able to row might have been a challenge. But they're fine actors and interestingly, many in the cast are British - the film was shot in Britain.

Given there are so many characters, it's inevitable that most don't get a chance to register strongly.

There's a shy guy who's brought out of his shell at the piano, and another who has a secret. And, of course, we learn a bit about Joe.

Rather than the rather pointless framing scenes, I'd have preferred end titles telling us what happened to some of the people.

Among the things I discovered afterwards was that the real Joe and Joyce married and had five children and a long life together.

Despite its limitations, The Boys in the Boat is a worthy tribute to the men and a good story nicely told.

It's also heartening to see that in this era of franchises there's still room for modestly budgeted, well made and intelligent movies like this.