“The Ringer” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
In order to enjoy the Johnny Knoxville comedy “The Ringer” you have to get past the fact it is about a man who tries to rig the Special Olympics. If that idea is so distasteful to you that you cannot conceive of any way this movie can be redeemed then you had better take a pass.
However if you can endure the first thirty minutes or so of the film, when the comedy attempts are actually painful to watch, you might find a sweet ending to it all. “Might” is the operative word here. Many people will think any showing of the “comic ” side of mental illness is just too offensive to bear.
Knoxville plays Steve Barker, a nice man in a dead end job. As a bargaining chip for getting a promotion, he has to fire the janitor where he works. After he fires him, he offers the man a job as his yardman. While working there the man gets his fingers severed in a lawnmower accident. Steve needs twenty-eight thousand dollars to get the fingers reattached for the man. Is your stomach churning yet
Steve’s uncle (Brian Cox) comes up with a scheme by which Steve will enter the Special Olympics as a mentally challenged young man. The uncle assumes Steve will be able to beat all the other entrants and win first place. He places a bet for one hundred thousand dollars that the current Special Olympics champion will lose. When he wins he will pay Steve enough to cover the operation.
Steve enters the competition as Jeffy Dalmor, and moves in with the other “special needs” athletes. The other athletes soon guess his game but rather than turning him in they decide to help him win. It seems they are sick and tired of the current champion winning everything.
As he trains with the other athletes Steve learns that they are “special” people in more than just their mental capacity. They are funny, friendly and likeable. As Steve learns this lesson the audience learns it too.
The film is rated PG-13 for profanity and crude humor.
“The Ringer” has actually been endorsed by the Special Olympics Organization. Obviously they feel it will help people see how these Olympic athletes should be viewed and treated. If that is the positive result, good for the moviemakers.
As for me, I never got over being uncomfortable seeing the athletes be the brunt of jokes. My wife, who is in education, saw it in a more positive light. She applauded the use of “special needs” actors alongside professional ones, and it being done in such a way you could not single out who was who.
Maybe if the lead actor had been anyone other than Knoxville, who is known as being one of the most irreverent actors around, I could have been more forgiving. But it is Knoxville and treating him as a sincere portrayer of a man with heart is too much of a stretch.
I scored “The Ringer” a second place 5 out of 10.
