The Ringer

The Ringer (2005)

Make it special.

Pressured by a greedy uncle and a pile of debt, lovable loser Steve Barker resorts to an unthinkable, contemptible, just-crazy-enough-to-work scheme. He pretends to be mentally challenged to rig the upcoming Special Olympics and bring home the gold. But when Steve's fellow competitors get wise to the con, they inspire him to rise to the greatest challenge of all: becoming a better person.

Date of release
2005-12-23
TMDB
5.7 / 10 (366)
Runtime
1h 34m
Genres
Comedy
Director
Barry W. Blaustein

Casting

Interesting facts

The Ringer is a 2005 American slapstick sports comedy film starring Johnny Knoxville, Katherine Heigl, and Brian Cox with cameos by Terry Funk and Jesse Ventura. Directed by Barry W. Blaustein, it was produced by the Farrelly brothers. The film was released on December 23, 2005, by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Production

The film took seven years to get made due to its controversial subject.

The Special Olympics committee eventually agreed to endorse the film, the filmmakers having given them final say on the script.

Producer Farrelly is himself a longtime volunteer with Best Buddies, a group that provides mentoring programs for people with intellectual disabilities, and has prominently featured characters with disabilities in his previous films such as Warren, the brother of Mary in There's Something About Mary, and Rocket in Stuck on You.

During the end credits, scenes from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet are shown being performed, ending with the Kids of Widney High performing Aretha Franklin's "Respect."

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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