Ringmaster

So it’s come to this: a movie based on a freakin’ daytime talk show. Springer (dubbed ”Jerry Farrelly” here) is a bland, ineffectual supporting character, forever blinking in befuddlement at his guests. The story centers instead on people so desperate to be validated by TV that they willingly debase themselves before the world. It’s a grotesque, patronizing parade; nobody told Molly Hagan, though, who invests her trailer-park matron with an oddly affecting caricature of dignity.