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I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the 99 minutes in "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio". This is a neat little gem which not many people have heard about or even seen, but is is worth exploring. It is a crime that film did not even make million dollars. It is underrepresented, under-promoted, and a joy to take pleasure in viewing. So if you don't read past this first line, I just wanted to get that out in the open. Remember this cute little film, "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio". I figured since not many people have heard of this film, they might not read this review, but if they checked out the first paragraph, they will still maybe look out for it. For those of you still with me, let's get into this film. This film beautifully captures the 1950's American households down to it's clothes, personality, look, and way of life. How do I know this you ask, being born in 1985? Well, I showed some of my grandparents the film and they told me, that's how! Julianne Moore gives a performance that should have gained an Oscar nomination as she plays Evelyn Ryan who supports her 10 children by entering and winning quite often, jingle contests. For various major and minor companies. She has to do this to keep her family above water as her husband Kelly Ryan (Woody Harrelson) spends a got chunk of his pay check on beer. Now, you probably why, if he's such an idiot and drunk, why not just divorce him and break up with him? Well, this is the 1950's, in which divorce was unheard of. In our current society, divorce is an everyday thing. If someone says you look fat in an outfit, you can promise those divorce papers will be written out. In the 1950's, in small towns, you never got divorced. You toughed it out, no matter how unbearable or horrendous the situation might be. Julianne Moore even tries talking to the local pastor about it and he is on the side of the husband. The cops are also in the pocket of the husband. The strength, courage, intelligence, unselfishness it took on the part of women back then to have to endure these times is nothing short of amazing. They give everything for their kids and their well being over their own. In the "me first" society we live in and how often we see kids get either abused, ignored, or lost in the shuffle, it is refreshing to see how things used to be. Where each of the 10 kids is treated with equal love, care, and affection. The wife does not cry, complain, or get angry, she just does what she has to do, deal with her husband as best she can and take care of the kids by winning jingles and supporting them. The film does not relie on soap opera drama or over the top theatrics. It has courage and confidence in it's true story on this amazing mom and woman and somehow, somehow she finds ways to keep this family above water despite her husband being an angry and over the top drunk. One of her many kids wrote the book, in which this movie is based on. It shows how all she did for her kids made them who they are, and shaped them into the human beings they are today. For anyone who ever had a mom like this, or an experience like this, this is definitely the film for you. This is one of the sweetest, most heart warming, lovable, cute films to come down the pike in quite some time. It's a real heart warmer. Tony Farinella Grade: A email this review to a friend
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