In a painted-by-numbers, tepid attempt to bring yet another historically based underdog sports story to the screen, director George Clooney’s “The Boys in the Boat” treads water before inevitably sinking into disappointing and forgettable mediocrity.

This isn’t even the first time that Clooney has taken on a similar theme as he previously tackled a sport via a struggling football team in 2008’s “Leatherheads,” in which he also starred. You would think he would at least know what not to do, but as with the previous film, he fails to find the rhythm and the heart at the center of the story.