noelani54 This film isn't about anything of Earth-shattering importance, except to the real-life family whose story it tells. In it are many fine examples of how a wonderful woman, and loving, long-suffering, wife and mother, made things happen for her family, raising 10 happy and successful children, in spite of serious trials. Not only that, but she manages to keep smiling and looking at the bright side, through all but the most difficult. It's acted very well, although I will say that I found Woody Harrelson, as the father, in a red wig, pulled it down, in a few spots. I don't think the problem was his performance, I just don't think he was especially suited to the role.Overall, this film is VERY well worth the time to watch it!

secondtake The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (2005)A chipper, sometimes funny, sometimes balmy film about the brilliance and determination of one woman during the apparently naive commercial idiocy of the 1950s in the United States.And Julianne Moore nails it as Evelyn, making this quirky, lightweight story take on a tinge of truth and depth. Enough to make it a fun film, but also a trenchant one. At times.Woody Harrelson plays the husband here, with not quite as much conviction as you'd like (he's a better middle class grunt in "True Detectives"). And Laura Dern has a really small role as an echo of the housewife played by Moore. What the woman have in common here is not just willfully playing out their roles as homemakers, which is fair enough, and of secondary characters outside the home, which is not. They are also contest players—and winners. Evelyn in particular has a knack for a turn of phrase that fits the corny jingles and slogans of this pre- Mad Men era in advertising.Part of the appeal here is easily the re-creation of the world, with its cars and houses and clothes. And attitudes. I'm just young enough to not know if it's accurate, and just old enough to know that it's exaggerated. And yet tongue is not quite in cheek here. There's the feeling that this is all meant to seem exactly how it was, and that's where it's a little too "Donna Reed" all along. I can only assume that life was a little less shallow than it comes off here. But who knows? It did strike me that the timing was off at times, that the cars were at times too old for the year (back then, people in the suburbs upgraded their cars often), and the music was out of sync by far. The push for a false innocence is closer to a Wes Anderson fantasy than anything.Which is fine! It's still "a gas" to watch, "terrif" from beginning to end. And Julianne Moore is quite amazing, as complex and interesting as the character needed to be. And under the radar movie. Recommended.

arcxv Well, it was fun to watch and enjoyable. However, told obviously from a very manipulated child's perspective. That poor man, I certainly hope all of his children do not resent and still believe what their Mother brainwashed them to think. The Mother even managed to blame their Father for her fear of driving! The abuse scenes do not have the ring of truth, I'd say because they never really happened and/or are being embellished by very myopic naive eyes. Here is a woman that marries the closest excuse for fame in her small town and spent the rest of her life resenting what she could have been and blaming her poor husband for her own shortcomings and anti-stardom. This man probably loved her dearly and when he was injured got a sudden cold shoulder that he was never able to warm as if it were his fault they would never be rich and famous. When he needed her, she turned her back and spent her life emasculating him and manipulating his kids against him. I'd wager that is closer to the truth, but if you like fairy tales, you will like this film. Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson acting, always worth watching I do not care what the plot line.

blanche-2 The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, is based on the true story of Evelyn Ryan, a mother of ten in Defiance, Ohio, who supported her family of 12 by writing winning jingles for contests.Julianne Moore is Evelyn, a unflappable mother who somehow keeps her cool raising her ten children and dealing with a drunken husband "Kelly" (Woody Harrelson), a machinist who spends all his money on booze. Her pastor advises her to make a better home for him. Thanks, father. Sober, Kelly is a sweet enough man, if ineffectual. Drunk he resents that it is she who supplies what money and food they have and has put a roof over their heads and he becomes violent - not towards her or the children, but by breaking and throwing things. This scares the kids. Once, a near tragedy is avoided when, during one of his tirades, Evelyn falls and the milk bottles break. One more inch and that would have been it for her.When she wins $5,000 (she had multiple entries using her kids' names, a common practice - one entry per name), she and her husband (Woody Harrelson) purchase a house, but only he signs the mortgage.Very much, the point made in this film is that things were different for women in the '50s. Evelyn was a clever woman who had a bright future as a newspaperwoman, but she gave it all up for marriage and family. On TV, we see Queen for a Day and Miss America saying she wouldn't vote for a female president because women are "too emotional." The acting is good all around, with Moore the perfect '50s housewife - maybe too perfect - how any woman could hold it together given her life is beyond me. Only a few times do we see her break down and be anything but calm and cheerful. Harrelson is excellent as a weak man who, despite his unhappiness, can't get his act together to give her enough money for the milkman.Supposedly the film is very close to the book, written by one of the daughters. The vintage elements are wonderful; one really feels as if it is the '50s, with the typewriter, the black and white TV, the old cars, the clothes (some of which belonged to the real Evelyn Ryan).Very good.