The Boy in Blue

Although his film biography features beautiful production design and more than 1,400 costumes, it is unfortunately perfunctory, flat, and predictable.

Somehow The Boy in Blue, amiable enough, always feels like an "afternoon" movie -- a throwaway, not good enough to plan an evening around. [03 May 1986, p.9]

The film is a witless, tedious contrivance based on the life of the Canadian rower Ned Hanlan, who lived a century ago.

The insult begins with casting Cage, a patently American actor who makes no effort to Canadianize himself, as a Canadian legend: the role could have made a Canadian a star. It continues with races so sloppily edited the relative positions of the skiffs change dramatically during two-second reaction shots. [17 Jan 1986, p.C1]