Camden New Journal - Movies: CLOSING THE RING

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The Review - AT THE MOVIES with WILLIAM HALL
Published: 27 December 2007

For the love of Shirley

CLOSING THE RING
Directed by Richard Attenborough
Certificate PG

YOU’RE going to have to be fast on your feet to keep up with all the to-ing and fro-ing that goes on in Richard Attenborough’s new sweet-sour romantic drama.
For starters, the film spans 50 years of a love affair that begins in the Second World War and flits with bewildering speed into the present day and back again… and again… and again…
Tragic-faced widow (Shirley MacLaine, pictured) sits in her lonely house in Michigan and looks back on her life as a spirited Southern belle, as well as the three young American airmen (Gregory Smith, Stephen Amell, David Alpay) who were such an important part of it.
All three were in love with her, but in an air crash in Ireland in 1941 only one survives to try to win her heart.
When a gold wedding ring is dug out from the spot, old ghosts rise to live again and torment the widow’s emotions, despite the efforts of a family friend (Christopher Plummer) to soothe her grief.
Attenborough directs a complex tale with old-fashioned verve, but the film is saved by a towering performance from Shirley MacLaine.
At 73, there’s life in the old girl yet!

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