| Prize-Winner, Indeed |
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| written 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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