Closing The Ring Review

"Closing The Ring" reviews

Movie

Closing The Ring

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2007-12-21 15:40:24

Provider

Review

Given that Closing The Ring is directed by Richard Attenborough and features Oscar winner Shirley MacLaine, plus young stars such as Mischa Barton, it is tempting to conclude that this is a film that has one eye on the Oscars. Certainly it sees no shame in tugging at the heartstrings, as you might expect of a movie, maybe, that centres on the connection between a Belfast plane crash in 1944 and the impact it has on people five decades on.

The film begins in Michigan at the funeral of Chuck Harris, husband to Ethel Ann (MacLaine), father to Marie (Neve Campbell) and best friend of Jack (Christopher Plummer). Simultaneously, in Belfast, Jimmy Reilly (Martin McCann) and Michael Quinlan (Pete Postlethwaite) are on a hill overlooking the city, where the remains of a plane are buried.

Buried, too, are Ethel's memories of her youth and her relationships with three men, among them former flame Jack. In fact, Closing The Ring is at its strongest during the flashback scenes when we learn that Ethel (whose scenes as a young woman are played by Barton) was once adored by every man she met. Good, too, are the scenes involving Jimmy and his grandmother, Elanor (Brenda Fricker).

How their stories come together is cleverly handled but, as fine as most of the performances are, Closing The Ring would have been markedly more successful had it been cut by 20 minutes and spurned the melodrama that seeps in towards the end.