Closing the Ring

Closing The Ring has a heartfelt and valid story to tell.....The main problem with Attenborough's film is the detachment between the characters of the past and those in the present.....Mischa Barton is lovely and vulnerable as the young Ethel Ann who has eyes only for Teddy.....Neve Campbell's performance as Marie is excellent, yet there is also something missing from her character.....Mischa Barton is a delight as the young Ethel, Stephen Amell is impossibly handsome in a 40s way as Teddy.... ... Full Review

Richard Attenborough's Closing the Ring is a lifeless zombie parade of bad movie cliches A testament to the power of a great actor, but a pathetic excuse for a romantic drama, Closing the Ring won't be grasping at the brass one any time soon. ... Full Review

MacLaine gives a wonderful performance as Ethel....Closing the Ring has lovely performances from the mature cast members and somewhat less impressive work from the younger actors.....All the extraneous detail cannot obscure what is a simple and mostly dopey love story.... ... Full Review

Back in the 1990s, CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER hovers around, with stoic fortitude....The plot is extremely cumbersome.....it's never very involving thanks mainly to Shirley MacLaine's extremely gloomy performance.....And it's sort of, there is sort of like something quite miserable at the heart of the film..... ... Full Review

They successfully project the inner turmoil of their characters in this melodrama which switches between 1991 and the Second World War.....grinning inanely throughout his scenes....MacLaine is particularly brilliant as recently-widowed Ethel Ann seeking to hide the truth of her war-time romances from her daughter.....Martin McCann shows true promise as the amusingly gormless Jimmy who finds Ann's dead husband's ring on a Belfast mountain.... ... Full Review

Closing the Ring lacks the gravitas of its subject matter..... ... Full Review

Inspired by true events, and akin to The English Patient and The Notebook, CLOSING THE RING is an epic romance about loss and closure, love and reconciliation, and the ability to find happiness when it seems all but gone... ... Full Review

great moments out of dramatic detritus.... ... Full Review

A generation or more ago, a movie like Closing the Ring would have enjoyed a far happier fate than being dumped into theatres in the middle of summer blockbuster season. Of the younger group, I particularly enjoyed Martin McCann's utterly guileless young strop. ... Full Review

Even if the film wasn't inspired by a real plane crash, Belfast is the perfect setting to show how buried secrets can poison everything. But what makes this special is its cross-channel appeal, including the best depiction of Northern Ireland I have seen in a modern film. ... Full Review