The film has a good script (except for the romance in the past that has not been carefully developed) and two fantastic narrative branches: the elder friends during and after the burial, and the investigations and political complications in Belfast. There are also many regular actors who do a good job, and five great actors who perform very well: veterans Christopher Plummer, Shirley MacLaine, and Pete Postlethwaite, but also Martin McCann as Jimmy Riley and Gregory Smith as young Jack, both of them very charismatic. The problem is exactly that the past romance, which is in the core of the story, is damaged by the terrible performance of seriously uncharismatic and unskilled Canadian actor Stephen Amell (I am perplex whilt I write it for noticing thst he is the guy who portrays superhero Arrow in several TV shows!!!). The scenes with the young characters before and during World War were nice when he did not appear; besides the aforementioned Gregory Smith, Mischa Barton was a little charming and David Alpay convinced as the shy guy. Amell, however, was a disaster, and it impacted even more in the romance scenes, as he had no credible connection with Barton (though, I may admit that when she exposed her breasts it became much nicer... but only then). It is a shame, because the film would have been quite good, as it was in the other moments, if were not for so important scenes with Stephen Amell...
Review of Closing the Ring
