DEBORAH CROMBIE: It's hard to find a good old-fashioned movie these days, isn't it? What we used to call a family movie, as in something you could take your kids to that isn't animated, and that grownups would enjoy as well. So for lots of reasons I was eager to see THE BOYS IN THE BOAT, and although we watched at it home, our daughter and son-in-law took our 8-year-old granddaughter to see it in the theater.
And it is a good old-fashioned story, where you get to root for the remarkable achievements of the sporting underdogs. (Think Seabiscuit, with oars!!) and there is some nice history thrown in.
But what kept me glued to the screen was the rowing, because this is one of my not-so-secret fan girl passions, and the subject of one of my personal favorites out of all of my novels, NO MARK UPON HER.
The book is set in Henley-on-Thames, where a female rower, who is also a police officer, is training for what she hopes is a comeback in the upcoming Olympics. When she is found murdered, Scotland Yard Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid's boss orders him to investigate, and many twists and turns ensue.
I spent a lot of time in Henley when I was researching this book. I even got to go out in a double scull with an Olympic gold medal-winning rower, Steve Williams OBE,. This was undoubtedly the scariest research thing I have ever done, but also the most fabulously exhilerating, and the most memorable. Even reading the opening passage in the book still gives me goosebumps, and I'm still chuffed that Stevie Williams said that I got everything just right.
And now back to THE BOYS IN THE BOAT. While the rowing scenes in the film are supposed to be in Washington and in Germany, they were actually filmed in and around Henley! I'm sure I drove my poor husband crazy all the way through the movie, saying, "Look! Look! That's Henley! That's the Thames!"
It was a lovely bit of novel-revisiting for me, so to celebrate I'm giving away a signed hardcover of NO MARK UPON HER to a commenter over on our REDS & READERS Facebook group!
How about it, REDs, have you seen the movie? Did you enjoy it? Any other recommendations for "family-friendly" recent fare?
P.S. I also highly recommend the non-fiction book on which the film is based, THE BOYS IN THE BOAT, by Daniel James Brown. It's a great story.
