Just in time to capitalize on Olympic fever comes the rowing movie starring James Van Der Beek that you had no idea you wanted (or, most likely, that you also had no idea even existed). In Backwards, Van Der Beek (Der Beek? Beek? Mr. Beek? Da Beek?) plays second fiddle to relative newcomer Sarah Megan Thomas as Abi Brooks, a world-class rower who has worked her entire life to competing (and winning) in the Olympics. Yeah, that doesn’t work out so much ‐ booted from her team, Abi ends up back at her old high school, coaching the crew team, and kicking it with her ex (Van Der Beek, cast as the head of athletics at their alma mater).
If you can’t imagine some of the conflicts that will arise in Ben Hickernell’s film, you’ve probably never watched a movie about sports stars trying to reinvent themselves before, and that’s a-okay, because no matter how predictable the film looks (and considering that the film’s first trailer seems to lay out a good two-thirds of the feature), there’s an unexpected energy and flow to it that’s actually pretty appealing. Sadly, though, “In the Hall of the Mountain King” doesn’t appear to make an aural appearance on the soundtrack of Backwards.
Backwards opens on September 21st. [Apple]
