Closing the Ring

• From Academy Award-winning director Richard Attenborough (Gandhi) comes this sweeping romance starring Shirley MacLaine (Terms of Endearment), Christopher Plummer (A Beautiful Mind), Mischa Barton (TV's The O.C.), and Neve Campbell (The Company). Moving seemlessly through time, this lush epic follows a beautiful 1940's Michigan girl (Barton) secretly married to a WWII pilot who crashes in the hill

A former small-town golden boy (Matt Long) and his new girlfriend (Jessica Stroup) come back to visit his hometown and discover his high school sweetheart (Mischa Barton) has developed an unhealthy obsession with him. His ex-girlfriend’s desperation slowly but surely becomes apparent, and all hell breaks loose as she does everything it takes to get him back.How far would you go to hang with the hottest girl on campus? Assassination of a High School President is an acid-tongued high-school c! omedy with attitude to spare, starring a sexy young cast including Mischa Barton (TV's The O.C., The Sixth Sense), Reece Daniel Thompson (Rocket Science), and superstar Bruce Willis. Sophomore newspaper reporter Bobby Funke (Thompson) is assigned to write a cover story on popular class president and top athlete. After a stack of SAT tests is stolen from the office of hard-as-nails Principal Kirkpatrick (Willis), Funke publishes an expose that names Paul as the prime suspect and suddenly, Bobby is BMOC. But when Paul's girlfriend, sexy senior Francesca (Barton), makes a move on Bobby and even his former bullies play nice, Funke begins to doubt the star jock's guilt and everyone else's motives. When his investigation uncovers a campus-wide conspiracy that threatens to take down students and teachers alike, Funke must decide to tell the truth or enjoy his new stud status. Also starring Michael Rapaport, Luke Grimes and Aaron Himelstein.From Academy Award-w! inning director Richard Attenborough (Gandhi) comes this sweep! ing roma nce starring Shirley MacLaine (Terms of Endearment), Christopher Plummer (A Beautiful Mind), Mischa Barton (TV's The O.C.), and Neve Campbell (The Company). Moving seemlessly through time, this lush epic follows a beautiful 1940's Michigan girl (Barton) secretly married to a WWII pilot who crashes in the hills near Belfast, Ireland. 50 years later his wedding ring resurfaces -- along with the smoldering secrets that have kept the widow (MacLaine), her estranged daughter (Campbell) and devoted friend (Plummer) each from finding true love.A love story spanning more than five decades, Closing the Ring may appeal to fans of The Notebook. Academy Award-winning director Richard Attenborough (Ghandi) utilizes shifting time frames to tell the story of Ethel Ann and WWII fighter pilot Teddy. The two fall madly in love and secretly marry in a sweet ceremony that is destined for tragedy. When Teddy's plane is shot down in Belfast, he is discovered by an Irish boy w! ho makes a promise to the dying soldier--he will return the wedding band to Teddy's young widow in the United States. Flash forward to the 1990s: An elderly Ethel Ann (Shirley MacLaine) is at her husband Chuck's funeral. He was never the love of her life and Ethel Ann had always lived her life full of "what ifs." Her grieving daughter Marie (Neve Campbell) notices the void, but can't comprehend why her mother has never been happy. When Teddy's wedding band is finally returned to Ethel Ann--50 years after his death--the memento opens up a floodgate of emotions, and Ethel Ann is able to get some closure on a part of her life that she has tried so hard to both forget and remember. As a family friend points out to Marie, "Everybody needs to cry, and your mother never did." At times slow and uneven, Closing the Ring rings true in the modern-day vignettes. MacLaine is exquisite in her role, as is Christopher Plummer as a longtime friend. But when the scenes flash back to t! he 1940s, the younger actors don't share the same on-screen ch! emistry or charisma. Mischa Barton is beautiful as the young Ethel Ann, but her moments with Stephen Amell (as Teddy) are a little forced. Campbell brings intelligence and gravity to her role, but is underused in the film. Viewers can't help wonder how different the tone of the movie may have been had she been cast as the younger Ethel Ann. --Jae-Ha Kim