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.
