The Ringer (2005) * * *

Directed by:  Barry W. Blaustein

Starring:  Johnny Knoxville, Katherine Heigl, Brian Cox

The Ringer manages to sidestep the pitfalls of a plot in which a regular guy named Steve (Knoxville) enters the Special Olympics posing as a "highly developed, educationally challenged" man in order to rig the games.   It is a clever, sweet, funny comedy which avoids the trap of making the mentally disabled Olympians the joke.   Instead, they are quick to catch on to Steve's act and expose him as a fraud, but agree to train him anyway because they are moved by his story.      Plus, Steve falls in love with Lynn (Heigl), who works for the Special Olympics and is very nice and very pretty.   

How did Steve get into this mess?    At work, he is given a promotion and ordered to fire the hapless janitor Stavi (Luis Avalos).    Steve doesn't have the heart to do it, so he hires Stavi to work for him.    Stavi has an accident with a lawnmower and cuts off all of the fingers on one hand.      Since Stavi has no medical insurance to pay the costs to reattach the fingers, Steve and his Uncle Gary (the splendid Brian Cox) come up with the Special Olympics scheme.     Gary bets on the games and envisions paying off his own gambling debt with his share.    Even Gary's creditor thinks betting on the Special Olympics is beyond degenerate gambling, but hey, money is money.    

Steve shows up at the Special Olympics, calls himself Jeffy and acts like someone who is, well, "highly developed, educationally challenged".   Steve doesn't think far enough ahead to give himself a last name, so his uncle comes up with "Dahmer".     These guys aren't nearly as brilliant as they think they are.   Jeffy is able to fool Lynn, but not his roommates, who are all intuitive.   "I've seen better acting in pornos," one tells Steve.

Produced by The Farrelly Brothers, who made raucous comedies like There's Something About Mary, Kingpin, Shallow Hal, and Dumb and Dumber, the film doesn't deteriorate into bad taste.     It stays on the right side of things while still being very funny.    Most of the people in The Ringer, even Uncle Gary to an extent, are nice.   The reigning Special Olympics champion Jimmy (Leonard Campbell), however, is an arrogant prima donna who rides around in a stretch limo and behaves like a spoiled, rich athlete.    He forever refers to himself in the third person, as does Steve as Jeffy, probably because Steve thinks all mentally challenged people do it.    

The Ringer does not make fun of the Special Olympics, but instead pokes fun at people who think its participants are not superior athletes.     Steve and Gary think since Steve is able-bodied and "smart" that he will run circles around the others.    Not so.   He is out of their league and knows it.
Johnny Knoxville has spent a lot of his career performing ridiculous stunts as part of the Jackass series and movies, but he has shown in films like this one that he can be funny without lighting himself on fire or crashing into things.     If I were him, I would leave the stunts to others and concentrate on actual acting.