Morning:
9°c
Derek Malcolm's rating
Time isn't always a great healer
By
Derek Malcolm
27 Dec 2007
Richard Attenborough's first film as director since Grey Owl in 1999 begins in small-town Michigan in the early Nineties, when Shirley MacLaine's Ethel lays her husband to rest. He had promised to look after her during the Second World War after her true love was killed crashing his bomber into Belfast's Black Mountain.
Ethel is not too sad to see her husband go, since it was not a love match, and there's always Jack (Christopher Plummer) who wants to step into his shoes. This is a story of inconsolable grief and whether it can be assuaged by time and circumstance.
Meanwhile, back in Ireland, a war veteran (Pete Postlethwaite), assisted by a young man (Martin McCann), digs on the site where the bomber crashed, despite the hostile attentions of the IRA.
Will the inscribed ring they find, given by Ethel to her love, be the secret that will finally help her to forget?
Closing the Ring is well-acted throughout and it has a romantic appeal that is not to be sneered at, even if some may find it bland.
It does, however, tarry a bit too long and its flashbacks make it seem more complicated than strictly necessary at times. But those who find it old-fashioned might just say, thank heaven for that.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Reader views (1)
Feminists may be offended by the way Ethel Ann is passed on like a parcel or second prize in a raffle. Nobody seems to think it strange that she feels obliged to marry the man her dead husband nominated, or that she agreed to the weird notion before the plane-crash. It's presented as her duty, a bit like when widows were expected to jump on the funeral pyre. Old-fashioned I can take, but rampant male chauvinism no.
- Sheila Cornelius, London, 30/12/2007 09:58
Report abuse
