Buy The Ringer
Thursday, June 24th, 2010
Pushover nice guy/dweeb Steve Barker (Johnny Knoxville) has to approach up with $28,000 to hide the cost of his lawnmower’s medical bills. His uncle, who is in serious gambling debt, hits upon the very questionable view of passing Steve off as retarted, thus qualifying him to compete in the Special Olympics. The disabled athletes, however, splendid fleet figure out that Steve is a poser, but they benefit him anyway because of their hate of arrogant perennial gold medal winner Jimmy Washington (Leonard Flowers) . At the same time, Steve tries to accumulate over attractive Special Olympics volunteer Lynn Sheridan (Katherine Heigl), while hilariously undermining her relationship with smarmy fiance David (Zen Gesner) .
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I wasn’t definite what to demand going into this film. I haven’t really dug Johnny Knoxville in the past (though I liked him in Walking Spacious), and I was dangerous as to how he would play this character. Thoughts of Billy Bob Thornton’s Willie from Dreadful Santa ran rampant in my brain. However, The Ringer turns out to be a comic, sweet-natured film, which laughs with the mentally disabled, rather than at them. Knoxville’s Steve Barker is a surprisingly sympathetic character: an inherently decent dude trying to do the factual thing, but is trapped into a corner, and ends up doing the nefarious thing. While I don’t know if I can condone his actions, I do definitely feel for him. Knoxville reveals a vulnerable side that is a mini-revelation. Steve’s Special Olympics moniker “Jeffy Dahmer” smooth cracks me up. Katherine Heigl (television’s Roswell) is perfectly winsome and very hot as Lynn. The rest of the film cast is also uniformly very top-notch, and is peppered with real mentally disabled performers. Edward Barbanell (”Billy”) and John Taylor (”Rudy”) are both actors with Down Syndrome. Also, all the extra athletes are wonderful Special Olympics athletes.
Produced by the wacky Farrelly brothers, The Ringer is irreverent, hilarious, touching and, yes, even a tad inspirational. But was it maybe too PC? Yeah, I would have to say so. The Farrellys obviously wanted to toe the line with this very chancy topic (the Special Olympics gave their blessings to this film) . But, as someone had mentioned, one wonders what kinds of unpolitically-correct stuff was left discarded on the editing floor. Peaceful, this is a very amusing, feel-good movie, with a (who woulda thunk it? ) very likable lead. Guess I’m gonna have to open watching more Johnny Knoxville.
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Special Features include: splendid icy film commentary by director Barry W. Blaustein, producer Peter Farrelly, and actors Johnny Knoxville, Edward Barbanell and John Taylor; a Special Olympics featurette; deleted scenes; “Let the Games Start - A Perceive at The Ringer” docu-segment; and a message from Special Olympics Chairman Tim Shriver.
Having seen most of Johnny Knoxville’s film oeuvre, I have not been particularly impressed. I’ve admired some elements of the smaller films (Daltry Calhoun, Substantial Theft Parsons) that he’s done to extend his acting cred, but have found most of his “blockbuster” work (Dukes, Walking Large) to be passable, at best, and excruciating, at worst. I’ll admit, I was not first in line to witness “The Ringer.” The notion of Knoxville going undercover as a participant in the Special Olympics seemed like a worry waiting to happen. In this world of political correctness, even the hint of impropriety threatens to derail questionable projects (considerable to my chagrin, most of the time), so I honest didn’t eye how it was possible that this chronicle was going to be made. But made it was, and with the rotund cooperation of the Special Olympics!
With minimal expectations, I actually found “The Ringer” to be very comic and filled with heart. Without a expect, I feel this is Johnny Knoxville’s best mask performance to date. He’s wickedly comic, surprisingly sympathetic, and a credible romantic lead all rolled into one. In a plot that is entered into with righteous intentions, Knoxville infiltrates the Special Olympics with the succor of his uncle (a hysterically black turn from Brian Cox) . There, he finds it noteworthy more spirited than he had anticipated–both physically in the sporting events and mentally as it’s difficult to fill his conceal. Of course, it doesn’t befriend matters that he falls for a handsome volunteer (natch) played by “Grey’s Anatomy”’s Katherine Heigl.
Of course, considerable of the humor is physical and grand might be considered offensive in definite camps. I, for one, found it refreshing that the other participants of the Olympics were not portrayed as “saints” but as dependable people. The front-runner, for example, is an outright villain. And when Knoxville is plot up on a blind date with a disabled girl, she is dismissive and peevish and downright mean. It’s a progressive and original conception, as most movies on this subject note exclusively righteous characterizations. Knoxville’s station against Heigl’s boyfriend is hysterical, his camaraderie in the group is original and believable, and his romantic inclinations are well-played.
With moments of what seem like mean-spirited humor, this is actually a sweet and respectful describe. I contemplate most people expected a bit more of the gross-out humor found in early Farrelly Brother’s pictures. This is a slightly more weak relate that the inspired “There’s Something About Mary”–but I was stunned and glad by how remarkable I actually liked “The Ringer.” KGHarris, 12/06.
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