The Ringer

 3/4

Starring: Johnny Knoxville, Brian Cox, Katherine Heigl, Bill Chot, Jed Rees, Edward Barbanell, John Taylor, Leonard Flowers, Luis Avalos

Rated PG-13 for Crude and Sexual Humor, Language and Some Drug References

"The Ringer" blindsided me.  Consistently funny and occasionally hilarious, it freely pilfers from the cliches of sports movies and both honors and parodies the message movie with equal zeal.

Steve (Knoxville) is the kind of loser that makes losers look good.  He hates his job, has nothing to show for his life, and even though he knows when he's being conned, he's too much of a milquetoast to stand up for himself.  When his boss orders him to fire Stavi the janitor (Avalos), he ends up hiring the guy as his gardener.  Of course, Stavi loses some fingers in an incident with the lawnmower, and now Steve is on the hook for a lot of money.  His ne'er do well uncle Gary (Cox) is also deep in debt, and comes up with a scam: rig the Special Olympics.  Steve will pretend to be mentally disabled and then win every event.  Gary will of course have placed an underdog bet on Steve and they'll rake in the big bucks.  Steve wants no part of it, but reluctantly agrees because: he's desperate, a doormat, and Gary so intensely desires this.

No one could blame you for finding that this premise turns your stomach.  It sounds more than a little sleazy.  But keep in mind that this was produced by the Farrelly Brothers.  In addition to being the Princes of Bad Taste, they're also huge advocates of the disabled community and have cast them in their films.  Bobby Farrelly once said: "It's not just putting people with disabilities in the movies - it's putting them in and letting them be a wide range of characters.  Some of them are funny, some of them are not, some of them are nice, some of them are jerks.  They're just like everybody else.  If a guy came up to us and he was physically disabled or something and he was mad at us for something we did, it would kill us.  Me or Pete - it would kill us."  From frame one, there is never a doubt that this is the mentality that everyone in the cast and crew had while making it.

The worst thing that the film could have done is exploit the disabled.  That doesn't happen here.  They're not "cute."  They're very smart; they see through Steve's scheme almost immediately.  The reason they don't report him is because they see him as a way to undercut a rival and possibly because they understand that anyone dumb enough to come up with such an asinine scam qualifies as a sort of demented genius and are simply waiting for the inevitable car crash that will occur when it explodes in his face.  They don't exist simply as a counterpoint to Steve or to provide him with a road to redemption.  They have their own ambitions and desires, and are willing to do anything to achieve them.  They're seen as people, not props.  That saves the film and makes it much, much funnier.

Johnny Knoxville is as close to a human crash test dummy as we have today.  He has zero shame, which is why he's the only one who could have pulled this role off.  Steve is a walking joke, and Knoxville knows it.  The scam is in danger of failing from the start not because of duplicity or discovery by Lynn (Heigl), the pretty volunteer he falls for, but because he gets his ass handed to him.  They're simply a lot better than he is, and that's what gives the film its edge.

Brian Cox may be famous for playing frothing at the mouth villains, but he can get down and dirty with the best of them.  Anyone remember "Super Troopers?"  Cox is good, but he lacks the streak of madness that is necessary to take the character to the next level.  The actor is too smart for the role; he's missing the insane drive that all the most desperate con men have.  For her part, the role of Lynn only requires that Katherine Heigl looks cute and flash a smile.  She's both, and that effectively disguises the fact that she can't act.  The other actors are just fine, and they have all the best lines.  Edward Barbanell, who plays Steve's roommate Billy, has a sardonic streak that makes him a scene-stealer.

"The Ringer" was controversial upon its release, although the Special Olympics embraced it.  It actually took seven years to make and faced a delayed release because of fears of how it would be received.  Watching the film, the only way it could be construed as offensive is if "disability + humor = offensive."  Which is of course not true.  Anything can be be subject for humor if played correctly.  And the actors here are not only in on the joke, they come out on top.  Are disabled people not allowed to have a sense of humor?