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Rating:
The average person's reaction to hearing the premise of The Ringer is cringing discomfort. Perhaps sensing this, Fox Searchlight barely advertised the film despite some preexisting notoriety, then slipped it into theaters right before Christmas -- the ultimate example of counter-programming. However, if anyone has built up the requisite "resumé of tolerance" to get away with this subject matter, it's producers Peter and Bobby Farrelly, whose films have consistently featured disabled characters and treated them respectfully. In fact, one complaint about The Ringer is that director Barry W. Blaustein and screenwriter Ricky Blitt are almost too conscious of their moral misgivings -- that it might have been edgier if scripted and directed by its producers. Johnny Knoxville initially fumbles on how to play Steve, but he never offends with the ticks and vocal mannerisms of Jeffy. Since he's always clear about the ethical compromise, and since he's only doing it to help an immigrant janitor pay for surgery, Steve is a little bit boring, misguided in a strictly superficial way. He's most valuable as an undercover observer of the casual misuse of the handicapped, specifically how they aren't deemed to be credible witnesses to bad behavior. The film does include some Bad Santa-style black-heartedness in the person of Steve's uncle, played with scummy abandon by Brian Cox, but everything surrounding the Olympians is best described as quirky sweetness. There's some discomfort in all the mainstream actors playing mentally challenged, but that's probably because they intermingle with actors who actually have Down's syndrome, who pitch in well enough to question the need for the mainstreamers. A film that will never fully escape these issues of political correctness, The Ringer is actually far more bland than it may seem -- which works both for it and against it at different junctures. Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide

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