Closing the Ring **** (2007, Shirley MacLaine, Christopher Plummer, Martin McCann, Dylan Roberts, Neve Campbell, Pete Postlethwaite) – Classic Movie Review 4318

The 83-year-old producer-director Richard Attenborough’s heartfelt, old-style 2007 romantic drama Closing the Ring is a delight, and it is a superb showcase for movie treasures Shirley MacLaine and Christopher Plummer, who grab their showy acting chances like beggars at a banquet. It also stars Mischa Barton, Stephen Amell, Neve Campbell, Pete Postlethwaite, and Brenda Fricker.

Martin McCann plays Jimmy, a young Belfast man in 1991 who discovers a wedding ring in the wreckage of a US B-17 bomber that crashed on a nearby hill in 1944. Then, over in the American Midwest, Ethel Ann (MacLaine) has just lost her ex-wartime flier husband.

There is a lovely bittersweet mood – both mellow and tearful – and a smashing script (by Peter Woodward), with delicious, poignant dialogue. Yes, it is all very sentimental, but it hits all the sentimental buttons square on. Attenborough makes his film warmhearted and moving.

What turned out to be Attenborough’s 12th and last film as director was appallingly underrated, even shunned, in the cinema. But now is your chance to catch it – don’t miss!

An international co-production between the UK, Canada and US, it had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 14 September 2007, its UK premiere at the London Film Festival on 21 October 2007 and was released in the UK on 28 December 2007.

It was filmed in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; and Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

The B-17G is Yankee Lady from the Yankee Air Museum, which was flown by Captain D. Eugene Wedekemper. It was also used in the 1970 Tora! Tora! Tora!

The main cast are Shirley MacLaine as Ethel Ann Harris, Mischa Barton as Young Ethel Ann, Christopher Plummer as Jack Etty, Gregory Smith as Young Jack, Stephen Amell as Teddy Gordon, Neve Campbell as Marie Harris, Pete Postlethwaite as Michael Quinlan, John Travers as Young Michael Quinlan, Brenda Fricker as Eleanor Riley, Kirsty Stuart as Young Eleanor, David Alpay as Chuck Harris, Allan Hawco as Peter Etty, Ian McElhinney as Cathal Thomas, Dylan Roberts as Wilbur and Martin McCann as Jimmy Riley.

The great and good Lord Attenborough died on August 24 2014, aged 90.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4318

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