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Palm Springs International Film Festival 2018: The Ring Thing



Starring: Sarah Wharton, Nicole Pursell, and Matthew Connolly
Directed by: William Sullivan
Screenplay by: Derek Dodge and William Sullivan

    Romance can be complicated.  Being in a relationship is extremely difficult and there are often a multitude of misunderstandings.  It's how the two people in the relationship handle those misunderstanding that makes this particular story happen.
    Sarah Watson (Sarah Wharton) and Kristen Jennings (Nicole Pursell) are two young women in a committed relationship trying to start their own careers and start their lives together.  Sarah and her mom are cleaning out their house one day when her mom finds the ring that her ex-husband gave to her when they got engaged.  She tells Sarah that she can keep it.  Some time later, Sarah meets up with Kristen on the beach and decides to show her the ring.  She only wants to show it to her.  So, while Sarah only wants to show Kristen how cool it is and whatnot, Kristen is thinking it might be something else.  Kristen misinterprets this as a proposal from Sarah.  But that's not what Sarah intended.
    Sarah and Kristen are two very different people.  Both are very career driven, but Kristen appears to be more established, being the producer for a popular web series, while Sarah is a film editor.  Both are very much in love with each other and both want to be together forever, but Kristen wants to get married and Sarah does not.  Sarah's parents are divorced and believes because of that that marriage is pointless and that if two people want to be together, they should be, even if they don't get married.  She doesn't want to feel tied down even though she wants to spend the rest of her life with Kristen.  Kristen however, feels that marriage is important and wants to exercise her right to marry the person she loves. 
     The story is told in two parts intercut together to make this story.  The first part starts with the accidental proposal in which Sarah sets out to discover what marriage is about.  She decides to make a documentary film about marriage, its pros and cons, to help her decide whether or not she actually wants to marry Kristen.  She interviews mainly same sex couples and some divorced people to make her documentary. 
      The second part of the story is about a possible future between Kristen and Sarah.  The two stories are marked separately by the length of both characters' hair.  In the first part of the story, they both have significantly shorter hair, and in the possible future part, they have longer hair.  It's not clear what their relationship status is in this part of the story, except for that they are still together.  Are they engaged?  Are they actually married?  They are trying to figure out how they fit together in each other's lives.  They both have full time jobs with differing hours and rarely get to see each other.  So, when Kristen gets a new opportunity across the country, she has to convince Sarah that they should go on this journey together.  Much of the time in this part of the story, Kristen seems to sacrifice much for their financial stability and seems less happy than in the first part of the story.  Sarah wants to fix their relationship before she can agree to go across the country with Kristen, but that puts stress on Kristen to decide what to do.  Push ahead with her career, or with Sarah.  Can she have both?
     Interestingly, the film leaves the two biggest questions open at the end.  The viewer is unclear if Sarah and Kristen actually get together, and if they move across the country or not.  I think this is an interesting way to end the film because it keeps people thinking about it long after they finish watching it.  Listening to the Q&A after with the filmmakers, even they have differing views of what happens at the end.  In this instance, this open ending works well. 
     Another thing that I really enjoyed about this film, that the filmmakers commented on, was the improvisation of much of the dialogue.  This gives the film a more natural feel and seems almost like a documentary.  Also, it makes the actors' performances stronger, forcing them to think on their feet much of the time.  Conversations move more naturally than in some other scripted narrative films and challenges the actors in ways rarely seen on screen. 
     The film feels quite long; much longer than it actually is, but it is engaging and interesting throughout.  There is not a dull moment in The Ring Thing.  This is the kind of film that makes film festivals worth going to because this is not the kind of film that might get a theatrical release, but will surely make the rounds at film festivals.  A worthwhile watch!

I give The Ring Thing a B+. 

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