Review of The Novice (2021) by Ellingston — 24 Dec 2021

I'm a lifelong competitive rower and I'll be honest, I found this movie a bit dull. She's extracted all the negative parts of rowing and focused entirely on those, leaving out all the joy of rowing. The the movie seems to focus on erg training more than actual rowing.

I also found the soundtrack ridiculous - you've got horror-movie strings for all the tense moments, then some anachronistic 50's kitsch for the actual erg pieces. Doesn't jibe with my experience at all.

If you want to check out an utterly amazing rowing movie watch "Losing Sight of Shore" about four Englishwomen who row across the Pacific Ocean. Each one has her own cellphone camera and the boat is only about 30 feet long so the footage is intimate and at times, incredibly painful to watch - in other words, a true film about Rowing.