''Closing the Ring'' is a 2007 romantic drama film directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Shirley MacLaine,

Christopher Plummer Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer (December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021) was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining him recognition for his performances in film, stage, and television. He received multiple accolades, inc ...

, Mischa Barton,

Stephen Amell Stephen Adam Amell (born May 8, 1981) is a Canadian actor. He came to prominence for playing the lead role of Oliver Queen on The CW superhero series ''Arrow'' (2012–2020). Amell also appeared in subsequent Arrowverse franchise media, along wi ...

Neve Campbell Neve Adrianne Campbell (born October 3, 1973; ) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her work in the drama and horror genres. She has appeared on ''People'' magazine's list of "50 Most Beautiful People" twice. Following a series of minor ...

Pete Postlethwaite Peter William Postlethwaite, (7 February 1946 – 2 January 2011) was an English character actor. After minor television appearances, including in '' The Professionals'', his first major success arose through the British autobiographical fil ...

, and

Brenda Fricker Brenda Fricker (born 17 February 1945) is an Irish actress, whose career has spanned six decades on stage and screen. She has appeared in more than 30 films and television roles. In 1990, she became the first Irish actress to win an Academy Awar ...

. It was the final film directed by Attenborough, then aged 83, who died seven years later. The film was released in both the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom on 28 December 2007. ''Closing the Ring'' is an international co-production between the United Kingdom, Canada, and United States.

Plot

In rural

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

in 1991, Marie Harris (

) delivers the eulogy at the funeral of her father Chuck (

David Alpay David Alpay (born 6 October 1980) is a Canadian actor, musician and producer, known for playing Mark Smeaton in the Showtime series ''The Tudors'' and Jade in the Epix series '' From''. Early life Alpay was born in Toronto, Ontario, and prior ...

), a

U.S. Army Air Force The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

veteran who had fought in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The church is full of veterans who knew and loved him. Her mother Ethel Ann ( Shirley MacLaine) is sitting out on the church porch, smoking and nursing a hangover. Ethel Ann is totally indifferent about Chuck's death, which only her friend Jack Etty (

) seems to understand. Marie is furious with her mother and with her implication that she slept with many of the veterans when they were all young, but then Ethel relents and says that she was always faithful. It quickly emerges that there is a lot Marie does not know about her mother's past and the true story of her love life. A young Ethel Ann ( Mischa Barton) was in love with young farmer, Teddy Gordon (

), who builds a house with his best friends Jack and Chuck. Her parents think she is dating "good old reliable" Chuck (all three are in love with her), but within days of the

Pearl Harbor attack The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, ...

, she has accepted Teddy's gold ring and unofficially married him – with Jack and Chuck as witnesses. The three young men fly out the next day. Teddy and Jack are stationed at RAF Langford Lodge near

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

, where Jack eventually plans to propose to Eleanor (Kirsty Stuart), an Irish

tart A tart is a baked dish consisting of a filling over a pastry base with an open top not covered with pastry. The pastry is usually shortcrust pastry; the filling may be sweet or savoury, though modern tarts are usually fruit-based, sometimes wit ...

. Jimmy Riley ( Martin McCann), Eleanor's young adult grandson, is in 1991 Belfast when he encounters local elder Michael Quinlan (

), who is digging for wreckage of a crashed

B-17 The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

aircraft on nearby Black Mountain. Jimmy finds a ring at the site, becoming determined to return it to the woman from the "Ethel & Teddy" inscription. The U.S. VA identify an Ethel that crash victim Teddy Gordon left his belongings to. Inadvertently caught up in

The Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...

, Jimmy flees Belfast, travelling to Michigan to give Ethel the ring. She reveals a wall covered in souvenirs of Teddy, which Jack and Chuck boarded up for her shortly after his death in June 1944. Marie is shocked and furious to learn that her mother still mourns for him, finally understanding why Ethel shut out Marie and Chuck. Jack later tells her the full story, including his own three failed marriages (his son, Pete (

Allan Hawco Allan Hawco is a Canadian writer, actor, and producer from Bell Island, Newfoundland. He is best known for his roles in the series '' Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan'', ''Republic of Doyle'', and '' The Book of Negroes'', and the television limited seri ...

), soon realizes Jack always loved Ethel), her refusal to leave the house Teddy built for her, and her taking ten years to marry Chuck. Ethel Ann travels to Belfast with Jimmy. As she holds the hand of a British soldier killed in an

IRA Ira or IRA may refer to: *Ira (name), a Hebrew, Sanskrit, Russian or Finnish language personal name *Ira (surname), a rare Estonian and some other language family name *Iran, UNDP code IRA Law *Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, US, on status of ...

car-bomb attack, Quinlan confesses to Ethel Ann that he, as a teenager, was on Black Mountain when Teddy died. Teddy made him promise to give her the ring and tell her she must be free to make her own choice in love. A tearful Quinlan tells her he should have reached out to her back then, and that he spent 50 years looking for the ring that was lost in the final blast that killed Teddy, regretfully (now) thinking she needed it as much as she needed his dying words. Joining Ethel in Belfast, Jack finally admits that he has always loved her. She is finally able to cry and properly grieve for Teddy. She and Jack embrace lovingly, completing her sweep through Teddy and his two best friends.

Main cast

* Shirley MacLaine as Ethel Ann Harris ** Mischa Barton as Young Ethel Ann *

as Jack Etty ** Gregory Smith as Young Jack *

as Teddy Gordon *

as Marie Harris *

as Michael Quinlan ** John Travers as Young Michael Quinlan *

as Eleanor Riley **Kirsty Stuart as Young Eleanor *

as Chuck Harris *

as Peter Etty *

Ian McElhinney Ian McElhinney (born 19 August 1948) is a Northern Irish actor and director. He has appeared in many television series in a career spanning more than forty years; notable appearances include ''Taggart'', '' Hornblower'', ''Cold Feet'', and ''T ...

as Cathal Thomas * Martin McCann as Jimmy Riley

Production

''Closing the Ring'' was filmed in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

and

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Hamilton has a Canada 2016 Census, population of 569,353, and its Census Metropolitan Area, census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington, ...

, Canada, and

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

, Northern Ireland. The B-17G used in the movie was '' Yankee Lady'' from the

Yankee Air Museum The Yankee Air Museum is an aviation museum located at Willow Run Airport in Van Buren Township, Michigan. The museum has a small fleet of flying aircraft and a collection of static display aircraft outdoors. History The Yankee Air Force Inc. w ...

(

Ypsilanti, Michigan Ypsilanti (), commonly shortened to Ypsi, is a city in Washtenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 20,648. The city is bounded to the north by Superior Township and on the west, south, an ...

), which was also used in the movie ''

Tora! Tora! Tora! ''Tora! Tora! Tora!'' ( ja, トラ・トラ・トラ！) is a 1970 epic war film that dramatizes the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The film was produced by Elmo Williams and directed by Richard Fleischer, Toshio Masuda and Kinji ...

''. It was flown by Captain D. Eugene Wedekemper.Beck 2016, p. 63.

Festival appearances

''Closing the Ring'' had its world premiere at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

on 14 September 2007."Closing the Ring; Richard Attenborough."
''Toronto International Film Festival'', 16 September 2008. Retrieved: 26 May 2019. The film received its UK premiere at the

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and sho ...

on 21 October 2007.

Reception

''Closing the Ring'' attracted a mixed critical response. According to the

, it "exemplifies the balance between the epic and the intimate that has been the hallmark of Lord Richard Attenborough's venerable career ... Attenborough traces multiple themes with ease and grace, giving his celebrated ensemble cast ample opportunity to shine". It concluded that the film is "a remarkable tale of love, loss and redemption that stands proudly among the films of one of the cinema's living legends. Deftly weaving together different eras and locales, Attenborough has produced another grand canvas about the emotional repercussions of a wartime promise." Derek Malcolm of the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' wrote that it "... is well-acted throughout and it has a romantic appeal that is not to be sneered at ..." Alan Morrison of ''

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

'' wrote "After recent disappointments, Sir Dickie Attenborough is back on better, albeit old-fashioned, form." Philip French of ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'' wrote "Woodward's script is more than a little contrived, as well as over-emphatic. But Attenborough has infused it with warmth and mature insight, and older members of the audience are likely to find it extremely moving." Laura Bushell of BBCi Films called the film a "... looping tale of love and loss in WWII which is so old fashioned in its aspirations, it's hard to see why new audiences would flock to see it." Joe Leydon in his ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' review, called the film "... decades-skipping

schmaltz Schmaltz (also spelled schmalz or shmalz) is rendered (clarified) chicken or goose fat. It is an integral part of traditional Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, where it has been used for centuries in a wide array of dishes, such as chicken soup, lat ...

" and an "aggressively bittersweet yet oddly uninvolving drama."Leydon, Joe
"Review: 'Closing the Ring'."
''

'', 24 September 2007. Retrieved: 26 May 2019.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Beck, Simon D. ''The Aircraft-Spotter's Film and Television Companion''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2016. .

External links

* * * * *
Closing the Ring
' at

Yahoo! Movies Yahoo! Movies (formerly Upcoming Movies), provided by the Yahoo! network, is home to a large collection of information on movies, past and new releases, trailers and clips, box office information, and showtimes and movie theater information. Yaho ...

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