Closing the Ring

From Academy Award-winning director Richard Attenborough (Gandhi, Shadowlands) comes Closing the Ring, a deeply moving love story of an American woman who honours a wartime promise of love with a lifetime of heartache until the discovery of a gold ring reawakens her.

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.

A World War II pilot crashes in Belfast and asks a local to return his ring to his girlfriend in the States. The ring is returned – but 25 years later.





Richard Attenborough has always been an actor’s director, drawing career highs from the likes of Ben Kingsley in Gandhi and Robert Downey Jr. in Chaplin. Now he adds Shirley MacLaine to his list. While the initially confusing story jumps between 1941 and 1991, Michigan and Belfast, World War II airmen and IRA bombings, MacLaine delivers a surprisingly restrained performance.

Metaphors about digging around in the past and papering over truths are handled heavily, but an eclectic cast (Pete Postlethwaite, Brenda Fricker, Mischa Barton) lightens the film’s contrivances.

After disappointments In Love And War and Grey Owl, 84 year-old Attenborough is back on better, albeit old-fashioned, form.


After recent disappointments Sir Dickie Attenborough is back on better, albeit old-fashioned, form.


Shirley MacLaine ... Ethel Ann
Christopher Plummer ... Jack
Mischa Barton ... Young Ethel Ann
Gregory Smith ... Young Jack
Stephen Amell ... Teddy Gordon
Brenda Fricker ... Grandma Reilly
Martin McCann ... Jimmy Reilly
Pete Postlethwaite ... Michael Quinlan
John Travers ... Young Quinlan
David Alpay ... Chuck
Neve Campbell ... Marie
Layke Anderson ... Army Corporal
Rosina Brown ... Woman in Phonebox
Paul Charlton ... Private Thompson
Tom Collins ... Fergus
Harry Dickson ... Belfast Taxi Driver
Stephen Don ... RUC Officer
Maureen Dow ... Woman in Air-raid Shelter
Anthony Finigan ... Chubb
Allan Gildea ... RUC Officer
Stephen Harland ... Resident
Allan Hawco ... Peter Etty
B.J. Hogg ... Maguigan
John Kavanagh
Ian McElhinney ... Cathal Thomas
Mathew McElhinney ... Cathal Thomas
Dylan Roberts ... Wilber
Kirsty Stuart ... Eleanor Reilly