Lauren Hadaway’s The Novice takes the maxim “giving it 110%” to a practically literal extreme. Following the freshman year of fictional Wellington University student Alex Dall (Isabelle Fuhrman) as she strives to make it to the top varsity boat on the school’s rowing team, Hadaway flips the stereotypical inspirational sports drama on its head, vividly imagining how easily the oft-seen campaign to be “the best” can slip into utter psychosis.
At the inaugural novice rowing team meeting, Coach Pete (Jonathan Cherry) tells a group of prospective rowers, “We should learn how to row and just have some fun.” But fun isn’t something that Alex seems capable of, which we glean from the P.O.V. shots of her attention drifting to small details in the room. Motivated less by any kind of innate interest in rowing than in the broad challenge of conquering a Goliath, Alex approaches the sport like a math problem, frantically scribbling down measurements, times, and equations in her notebook in order to calculate how to overcome her size and strength disadvantages.
Alex’s hard work pays off and The Novice proceeds to show her triumphantly climb the proverbial ladder to a coveted spot on the varsity squad. At the same time, Hadaway is quick to center Alex’s simultaneous physical and psychological deterioration, through precise and rapid-fire editing that keenly mirrors the young woman’s increasingly frazzled mindset.
As Alex is beat down by her training, the film aims to simultaneously assault us with a barrage of frenetic training montages, while the hallucinatory blurring together of night and day conveys that there’s seemingly no end to her practice schedule. No less blunt is how Alex, as she continues to push her body past its limit, ends up developing stigmata-like wounds on her palms, suggesting that her athletic journey has become akin to a religious experience.
Yet for all of the stylistic verve that Hadaway brings to this tale of compulsive self-improvement, Alex remains a cipher. In an early scene, a long-time friend (Jeni Ross) notices Alex’s attention drifting over lunch and calls her out for “processing.” This intriguing comment signals toward potential trauma in Alex’s past and the analytical approach that she takes to every situation. But beyond a few anecdotes about her ceaseless work ethic propelling her to the top of her class in high school, Alex’s backstory is left largely out of sight, lending the film a hazy lack of specificity that ultimately dulls the psychological impact of its climax.
Despite these shortcomings, Fuhrman’s ferocious central turn is consistently gripping. “Relax” is a refrain constantly levelled at Alex, and Fuhrman intensely displays how utterly unimaginable achieving that state of being is for her, bringing a quiet spookiness to the character that recalls her unforgettable breakout role in Jaume Collet-Serra’s Orphan. The Novice may not have as much going on under its sleek surface as Fuhrman’s performance does, but at its best, the film suggests some kind of hellish Nike commercial, where “just do it” becomes less an inspirational motto than a grueling portent of doom.
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