The Ringer Review by Clint Morris
Johnny Knoxville’s latest movie goes a
little bit like this: Guy pretends to me mentally challenged so that he
can win the Special Olympics.
And you’ll go a little bit like this: “Ah, nah honey – even The Fog sounds more enticing than that”.
The Ringer
is a pretty offensive movie – but ironically enough, not because
it’s about a guy masquerading as a special Olympian.
It’s
offensive because it’s so middling – the jokes are few and
far between and both the plot and running time are going head to head
in a race to be the shortest. The target is the art of the film, not
the mentally handicapped.
On the other hand, we should be
thankful. It could’ve gone for the easy gag and opened fire on
the mentally retarded community (and with the Farrelly brothers
producing, many wouldn’t have been surprised if it did go that
way), but it doesn’t. Not at all. Sure, Knoxville’s
character briefly mocks their speech impediments and even the way some
of them walk (probably the cruellest element of the movie, I gotta
say), but the mentally disabled aren’t the butt of the jokes at
all. He is. And in fact, his co-stars walk away looking like gold here
- leaving Knoxville wondering whether he was short changed in the jokes
department – and bring a lot more to the movie than it probably
deserved.
At the request of his financially strapped
uncle (Brian Cox is another ‘what the heck are you doing,
man!” role), Steve (Knoxville) pretends to be mentally challenged
so they can compete in the Special Olympics. If the fictitious
“Jeffy” can stop the reigning champ from winning this years
games – he’ll pocket enough money to help out both his
uncle and his friend whose recently lost his fingers in a lawn mowing
accident.
Writer Ricky Blitt deserves points for not taking
the easy route - the characters of the special Olympians are treated
respectfully, warmly and with (astonishingly) a great understanding. It
really is a welcome surprise.
On the other hand, that
doesn’t mean Blitt has written a great movie – he
hasn’t. Sure, it’s entertaining, in that ‘straight to
video, nothing-to-do-today-so-might-as-well-watch-this’ sense,
but it really needed a joke doctor to apply his tools to it before it
was discharged from the spools.2.5 out of 5
The Ringer
Australian release: 27th April, 2006
Cast: Johnny Knoxville, Brian Cox, Katherine Heigl, Jed Rees, Bill Chott
Director: Barry Blaustein
Website:
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here.
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