Sixty-five years after making his screen debut as a young stoker in co-directors Noël Coward and David Lean's World War II drama In Which We Serve, Richard Attenborough perfects the balance between epic story and intimate tale with this drama starring Shirley MacLaine and Neve Campbell as a mother and daughter who find a relic from the past sparking an incendiary series of events. The year is 1991, and as a small American town mourns the passing of beloved World War II veteran Chuck Harris, his
wife Ethel (MacLaine) numbs herself with alcohol to the point where she completely neglects her grieving daughter Marie (Campbell). Later, after Marie receives a telephone call from a boy in Northern Ireland who claims to have recently discovered a ring belonging to Ethel, a mystery nearly five decades in the making comes slowly into focus as the story drifts back into Chuck's wartime past and the days when he and Ethel first formed their powerful bond. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Attenborough is a past master at this type of drama, and he confidently shifts between the decades, avoiding the confusion so common to non-linear films like this.
Though this original screenplay by Peter Woodward has the potential for an interesting examination of the endurance of love, it's saddled with characters who are not very believable and situations which are more melodramatic than realistic.
There are emotional high points in this film about one woman and the three men who love her, but the storytelling is cluttered and the constant to-ing and fro-ing from past to present detracts from the overall
The film hangs on themes of lost love, longing and lies buried deep in family history, but with a tonne of sentimentality and mawkishness to carry it really drags its feet.
Despite boasting cinematic pedigree on-screen and off, Closing The Ring is amateur and predictable - from Peter 'son of Edward' Woodward's clunky soap opera screenplay to unimaginative lensing and ropey SFX.
I like these sorts of stories. It is like a whodunit, but instead of a CSI figuring out who the killer is, we have to figure out how everyone is connected. I wondered for most of the movie what Mr. Quinlan (Pete Postlethwaite)'s connection to the story was.I saw this movie a second time and liked it even more the
second time. Scary stuff - Belfast in the 80's.
Not that crash hot, although I did sit through the whole thing. It really had the feel of a tv movie, and the worst soundtrack ever. The scenes with Ethel and Teddy are nice, but I wasn't too keen on the rest of it. Neve Campbell is highly unappealing in this, the scene where she takes on her mother, talk about over
acting. Even Shirley MacLaine is not all that likeable as she generally is. The ending just fell flat and the big secret not worth waiting for.
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