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Steve Barker is a nice guy stuck in a mundane desk job when
a twist of fate turns his life; and his definition of success,
upside down. When Steve works up the courage to ask his boss
for a promotion, his wish is surprisingly granted, with one
condition: Steve must first fire Stavi, the long-time janitor
at the company. To soften the blow, Steve offers to employ
the distraught janitor himself, a decision that quickly backfires
when a lawnmowing accident lands Stavi in the hospital missing
several fingers not to mention medical insurance. Desperate
for the cash to save Stavi's digits, Steve enlists the help
of his smarmy uncle Gary, who's worried about his own skyrocketing
gambling debts. In typical fashion, Gary comes up with an
unthinkable, contemptible, lower-than-low scheme just crazy
enough to seem doable: school running star Steve will compete
in the upcoming Special Olympics as a "ringer," handily defeating
the greatest champion of all time, six-time Gold Medal pentathlete
Jimmy, whom Gary will bet against...
Racked
with remorse over Stavi, Steve begrudgingly goes along with
the scandalous plan and transforms himself into 'Jeffy', his
new alter-ego. But succeeding at being intellectually challenged
turns out to be a far greater challenge than Steve ever imagined.
From convincing Special Olympics volunteer Lynn Sheridan,
with whom Steve is smitten; to trying to win the friendship
of his feisty fellow competitors, Steve is stumped, not to
mention not nearly good enough to win any of his events. To
make matters worse, Steve's co-competitors soon get wise to
his scam. But instead of turning against him they decide to
join him and train Steve as a competitor themselves, hoping
he can topple the arrogant Jimmy from the podium. With a training
regimen unlike anything ever seen in sports before, Steve
prepares to go for the Gold for his new friends; and, in the
process, stumbles at long last upon his personal best.
When
I saw posters for The Ringer, I thought it was going
to be a film of belly laughs - especially if the lead actor
is Mr Jackass himself; Johnny Knoxville. Sadly it only really
offers a few decent chuckles. Of course there's the issue
of the content itself - taking the Michael out of the 'mentally
challenged' is not really PC these days, but it still could
have made for a hilarious comedy. Instead it's a pretty mediocre
one, and when you do laugh, you kinda feel guilty!
Even
still, this film is actually endorsed by not just one, but
two organisations that deal with people with mental disability.
Both the US National Down Syndrome Society and the Special
Olympics endorsed this film and were consulted in the movie,
but I guess it's just down to personal opinion as to whether
you feel guilty for chuckling when the Special Olympics' jock
gets called a 'Monster Tard' by evil uncle Gary.
On the flipside, there's also lots of endearing messages not
so hidden away about overcoming adversity, the specialness
of special people etc which can make you feel a bit peaky
at times.
Although
this is a bit of a negative sounding review, The Ringer
isn't all bad. In a nutshell it's an average comedy with bits
of humour and a dodgy topic. But you'll get a small laugh
out of it none the less, so I'd recommend checking this out
of the local DVD rental store before buying it for keeps.
Keri
Allan
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