Regular Price $29.98

Starring: Julianne Moore,  Woody Harrelson,  Laura Dern,  Trevor Morgan,  Ellary Porterfield, 
Directed By: Jane Anderson (II), 
Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Release Date: 2005
Studio: Dreamworks Video
Format: AC-3,  Color,  Dolby,  DVD-Video,  Subtitled,  Widescreen,  NTSC, 

Editorial Reviews and DVD Information about The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio

Product Description
Anything is possible with a little laughter and a lot of heart in this incredible true story of an extraordinary woman who raised 10 kids on 25 words or less.Academy Award® nominee Julianne Moore stars as Evelyn Ryan a devoted housewife and mother who uses her knack for words to win thousands of dollars in jingle contests to keep her family together. Also starring Academy Award® nominee Woody Harrelson this witty and engaging comedy celebrates the power of a winning spirit.System Requirements:Running Time: 99 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 678149196429 Manufacturer No: 91964

Amazon.com
Based on the true story of Evelyn Ryan, The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio is one of those overlooked gems that deserves a long life on DVD. Splendidly adapted by writer-director Jane Anderson from the memoir by Terry Ryan (one of Evelyn's daughters), the film operates on several endearing levels: as a revealing study of the housewife's plight during the Eisenhower era, an inspiring tale of tenacity and survival against formidable odds, and a charming family drama that tempers sentimental nostalgia with the emotional toll of harsh reality. As always, Julianne Moore brings subtle perfection to her role as Evelyn, the cheerfully strong-willed mother of ten who compensates for the failings of her alcoholic husband (Woody Harrelson) by becoming the most successful "contester" in the country, entering cleverly-worded poems, jingles, and slogans in corporate sponsored contests throughout the mid-1950s and early '60s. Winning everything from palm trees and pogo-sticks to sports cars and cash, she holds the financially desperate family together with happy smiles and a rock-solid defiance of her husband's volatile temper. Directing her first feature after a respected career in television, Anderson employs some delightful visual effects to liven up the period kitsch (in some cases allowing Moore, as narrator and actor, to appear with herself in the same scene), but she never compromises the emotional core of the drama, which yields an unexpectedly powerful payoff when surviving members of the real-life Ryan family appear, as themselves, in the film's touching final scene. Like Evelyn, this movie's a winner. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews for The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio

EXCELLENT FILM WITH JULIANNE MOORE IN TOP FORM!
This is one of those love it or hate it films, it's certainly has a style all it's own. The nostalgic story of a mother of ten with an abusive alcoholic husband is sometimes funny, inspiring and sad. Julianne Moore gives a wonderful performance in the lead role with excellent support from Woody Harrelson. Never one dimensional, this little movie works on so many levels, it deserves a place in everyone's film library. Hopefully the price will drop on this little gem soon!The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio

Heartwarming, nostalgic
"The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio" played one screen in my town, and I assume it played to mostly empty seats since no one, not the theater or Dreamworks, took out a single newspaper ad to promote its engagement.

That's a shame. This is an excellent, heartwarming film that positively glows with nostalgia for the tight-knit family life that defined the America of the 1950s. Julianne Moore, hands down my favorite contemporary actress, stars as a small town housewife married to an alcoholic who keeps a family of ten together and solvent by using her wits to write slogans for advertising campaigns in contest after contest. Of course, it's a true story from the pen of one of her daughters, Terry Ryan.

Jane Anderson, who also penned the screenplay, directs with a sure hand, bringing out the best in a superb cast.

"The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio" is a movie that deserves better than it got, and whose reputation is sure to grow through the years.

Brian W. FairbanksThe Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio

A Determined Spirit
If you have every worried how to feed your family or how to make all the ends meet at the end of the month this is a movie for you.

Evelyn Ryan (Julianne Moore) must be resourceful with 10 children to feed and a less than useful husband (Woody Harrelson) - so what's a 1950's woman to do. Well, you enter contests and write jingles and with a bit of luck and a determined positive spirit things just might go your way.

This movie is based on the book written by her daughter Terry Ryan.

I really enjoyed this movie and the positive message that it sends.

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio

Prize winner
This is one of the most enjoyable movies I have ever watched. I could watch it 100 times and never get tired of it. Julieanne Moore is incredible in this as is Woody Harrelson.The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio

Is this heartwarming or pathetic?
Julianne Moore indeed gives an excellent performance in a largely one dimensional role. I suppose that those who mourn the demise of 'family values' would find the plucky heroine type to be inspiring. In my own case, I wondered if Evelyn, with her endless painfulness and cheerfulness, wasn't more the sort of Irish Catholic 'martyr' often popularised during the 1950s and 60s literature, an era when those with serious problems (whether in marriages, emotional state, disability, or illness) had to show that they never had a trace of 'self pity' or struggle. (Evelyn, I'm sure, would have equally counted her blessings, "I only have a husband who destroys the property and loses the house - and look at that marvellously cheerful contest winner who is in an iron lung!")

The film is rather entertaining, the more if one who remembers the time period indulges a bit of nostalgia. One scene which seems to develop a theme is when Evelyn tells her daughter about enjoying each moment to the fullest - a philosophy which indeed is a gift. Yet one wonders whether Evelyn is hiding beneath a facade. Though her ability to enjoy such pleasures as come her way seems very genuine, she's a bit too perfect. There is never a moment of impatience with the ten children, sadness but never anger when her alcoholic husband goes into rages or even nearly loses their house. (The latter is saved only by Evelyn's fortuitously winning a major contest at the right moment.)

The film is a pleasant enough way to pass a rainy afternoon, but I found it highly artificial. Unlike some women today, I do not find the conditions under which many housewives lived in the 1950s to be other than positive, nor do I assume having a large family had to be oppressive. I knew many women who lived happily in such circumstances. I also can well understand a talented, lively young woman's attraction to a charmer who happened to be alcoholic, since the deterioration with such an illness may be invisible in the very young. Yet I can see the dark side here - when one who has pain must not let it be seen, and, were she to try to share it, would be shrugged off with an exhortation to be a better wife (as her priest offers in the film) or condemned for 'feeling sorry for herself.'The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio

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