A gem. A great, chilling, movie with an unexpected twist of an ending

Rating: 5/10 (26 October 2002)

I went to see The Ring not knowing what to expect. However, it's
high 8.1 rating encouraged me. To say the least, I wasn't
disappointed. As you may know, the premise of the movie revolves
around a disturbing video tape and anyone who watches it dies. I
won't delve too deep into the plot. The movie revolves around
Naomi Watts' character, Rachel, and her investigation into the
contents of the tape and their origin, after she herself watched the
it. Her niece and her friends had all watched the tape earlier and
all died suspiciously. As she investigates further, we discover
more and more about the story behind the video and eventually we
reach a frightening and unexpected climax with a brilliant ending
with a major red herring.
The performances were fine on all accounts. Ms. Watts is superb,
a real talent. She isn't quite as good, in my opinion, as, say, Nicole
Kidman in The Others, but the entire film rests on her performance
and she delivers. The story is superb, though I suppose I should
attribute much of this to the original filmmakers. I haven't seen the
original, Japanese version but I suppose that they didn't muddle
too much with the original formula.
Anyway, on the not-that-good side, the ending left a lot open to
interpretation. Almost too much, but not so much that it ruins the
film. Not by any means. So please don't let this keep you from
seeing it.
All in all, I found The Ring to be a fun, often very frightening film that
is well worth seeing for any movie fan.