Hubby and I watched The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio last night. I wasn’t expecting anything much from the film, but it blew me away. This was a touching, unique, and thoroughly enjoyable film that has wiggled its way onto my top ten films of 2005 list as a late add.

The Plot
This film is set in the 1950’s and 1960’s and focuses on the life of Evelyn Ryan (Julienne Moore), a housewife and mother of ten who helps to keep her family of twelve afloat by entering skill-based product competitions. Evelyn writes jingles and slogans with great skill, resulting in prizes ranging from large cash awards to shopping sprees and appliances. Without her talent, the Ryan family would be in bad shape, as Evelyn’s husband Kelly (Woody Harrelson) consistently drinks much of his salary down the drain and provides little financial support for his children. This based-on-a-true-story film was inspired by a memoir of the same name written by Terry Ryan, daughter of the real life Evelyn Ryan.

The Film’s Style
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio is filmed in a unique style. To some extent, the character of Evelyn Ryan is narrating the film. Sometimes the scenes will pause and she will move in and out between the other characters. She will stop the action to explain something. For example, at one point she says, “Let me explain my marriage…” before launching into telling the viewer about the history of her relationship with her husband. At first I found this style jarring, but after a while I really enjoyed it. It was good to see a film with a unique approach to telling a story.

My Thoughts
This is a surprisingly real film about characters I came to care about. The character of Evelyn as portrayed by Julianne Moore is simply delightful. She is a loving, intelligent women who clearly cares deeply about each and every one of her children. Despite her difficult husband and the fact that she is locked into providing for ten children by her sweepstakes entries, she never becomes a victim and never becomes bitter with her lot in life. Her character is interesting as she provides a look at a very real historical trend of women’s frequently powerless roles in marriage. At one point when Evelyn asks her priest for advice after Kelly goes on a destructive drinking rampage, he tells her she simply needs to try harder to make her husband a nice home.

Woody Harrelson also does an excellent acting job in his portrayal of Kelly Ryan. He is quite a complex character and in the end one can’t help but feel sorry for him as he seems unable to escape the claws of alcoholism. While he is irresponsible and unstable, he also seems human and vulnerable. The viewer can watch him struggle with his inability to consistently provide for his family. Although most of the children have relatively small parts I was very impressed with the child acting. This is a family I would love to spend a few hours with.

The plot itself is a lot of fun. Partly due to the use of radio and television jingles, the film really pulls off a 1950’s feel. I’ve also never seen a movie on a similar subject, although there may be one somewhere. The movie finishes very strong as the viewer gets to see what the real Ryan kids are up to these days.

Overall…
I am very impressed with The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio. The film touches on the serious subjects of marital conflict and alcoholism but does so without becoming preachy or depressing. The movie may not be completely realistic, but I’m ok with that. At its core, this is a film about a plucky mother who loves her family more than anything and is determined to make the best out of each and every minute of her life. That, to me, was worth watching in this very well done film.

Recommended: Yes