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Julianne Moore,
Julianne Moore,
Woody Harrelson,
more...
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Jane Anderson,
Jane Anderson,
Libby Hodgson,
more...
see all cast/crew...
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: DreamWorks
: Drama, Dysfunctional Families
: 99 min.
: English
: English, Spanish, French
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The true story of one woman's effort to keep her family afloat under difficult circumstances comes to the screen in this bittersweet comedy drama. Evelyn Ryan (Julianne Moore) was a woman of intelligence, talent, and pluck living in the small town of Defiance, OH, in the 1950s. Evelyn was married to Kelly Ryan (Woody Harrelson), a man who gave her ten children but not much else; Kelly had a severe drinking problem, struggled to hold on to a job, and tended to spend his money as soon as he earned it. It was seemingly up to Evelyn to support the family, but with ten kids to look after, taking a job outside the home hardly seemed practical. But the resourceful Evelyn discovered a way to bring some extra money into the household -- at a time when a number of companies held contests to find new advertising jingles for their products, Evelyn had a genius for coming up with slogans and winning contests, and for the better part of a decade Evelyn kept food on the table and a roof over her head by dreaming up jingles, tag lines, and ad headlines and winning contests with her handiwork, often selling the merchandise she won to pay the bills. The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio was based on the best-selling memoir by Terry Ryan, who was the sixth of Evelyn Ryan's ten kids. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
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| Prize-Winner, Indeed
by talltale
March 17, 2006 - 8:59 PM PST
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1 out of 2 members found this review helpful
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I recommend THE PRIZE WINNER OF DEFIANCE, OHIO without reservation. While our taste-making critics pooh-poohed it and audiences stayed away, don't you do the same. This movie captures the 1950s so beautifully--patriarchal society, women's place (and how they sometimes circumvented it), those wonderful TV jingles that occasionally brought in money/food/furniture, the family, the church and more--with all of it rich, real and often unpleasant.
Julianne Moore has her best role in years and does it justice. The rest of the cast, many of them new and relatively unknown, follows suit. This movie exalts the no-longer-eternal American verities of hearth and home at the same time as it shows how difficult it could be to live up to them. You may find yourself angry at why nobody in the film questions the necessity of having ten kids; once the Catholic priest visits (one of the younger children makes a priceless comment about "breath"), you'll probably remain angry but settle down to brass tacks.
The view we see here simply shows how life was--in a certain socio-economic & religious class. If you were a part of that class, this is what you had to contend with. Period. And having an alcoholic husband--even if you love him--doesn't help (Woody Harrelson does well by this role: his hubby is not quite a villain but he's sure as hell no help.) The ending, joining reality with "movie reality" in a near-perfect manner, is splendid. Directed and written by Jane Anderson (who also gave us "Normal" and "The Baby Dance"), from a book written by one of the actual family members, the film is not for the very, very cynical among us (particularly if that cynicism is a mask for inexperience). So sorry, cynics: your loss. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 7.78)
9 Votes
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