11/04/06 The Prize Winner Of Defiance, Ohio

The Prize Winner Of Defiance, Ohio (2005), directed by Jane Anderson

watched solo; DVD (borrowed from parents) @ home

Coming in with another movie based on a true story, but much more fictionalized than yesterday's (ummm, instead of the actual wild parrots seen there, we have stars like Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson replacing the actual people to protect their...well not so innocence). What the story is about, comes from the book of the same name, written by the daughter Terry Ryan of the woman for whom the subject of this movie becomes clear after the straight-forward title and plot are unveiled. What I mean to say is that this is an honest tribute to a woman who was not only a strong and resilient person but a loving mother of ten children (that's right, ten!) and catchy jingles. Alright, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself in the explanation. Terry Ryan's biography of her mother Evelyn and their family growing in post-war Ohio is one of unflinching honesty and turmoil. Julianne Moore plays the mother Evelyn, who must scrape every ounce of energy and money to raise her ten kids in a modest household when times are tough. She does so with an ever-present sense of sickening 50's charm and decorum and a smile. The biggest problem that comes from the family's financial struggles is that the father Kelly (Woody Harrelson) takes to the bottle, drinking the family finances away and lashing out in frustrated violence on inanimate objects. His daily tantrums are upsetting to not only the kids, but his poor wife who must try to keep this rocky relationship together. Why you might ask? Well, there is no good reason in my opinion, perhpas its a sign of the times when people almost forced themselves to stay in bad relationships for the sake of religion, the kids, their own fears, whatever. I cannot pass judgement on these people and their life, because I'm sure it was very hard, but it just makes you angry to see these things (even in a fictionalized manner) play out without someone stepping in to stop it. Of course, it is shown how even the teenage children would in fact step in and try to stop the violence, but it seems in the happy-go-lucky world of Hollywood that everything was always made better in the end. Anyway, the point is that the one glorious thing that Evelyn did for her family was to have a serious knack for writing catchy jingles and mottos to the advertised products on the radio & TV...which would occasionally bank the family some serious prize winnings (in the form of not only money, but household items & food that kept the family afloat for many years). Even with these winnings, things were hard, and Kelly's drinking seemed to take the place of his growing jealousy and inferiority complex he received from his wife being more successful than he. It's truly a sad story wrapped up in a brilliant wholesome smile for the 50's scene, but I just didn't like the Hollywood treatment for the film. I'm sure the true story from Terry Ryan was much better, and the one nice thing I could see in the film (that was just too depressing) was at the end when all of the actual ten Ryan children play themselves on screen. That was a nice touch.

2 out of 5 stars