Movie Review: The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio

THE PRIZE WINNER OF DEFIANCE OHIO
Date Viewed: March 21, 2006
CATEGORY: Drama – Nonfiction
CAST: Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson,
RATING: A
WHERE SEEN: Home
REASON FOR VIEWING: Read the book and enjoyed it
SYNOPSIS: Evelyn Ryan, wife of an alcoholic, raises her 10 children by writing jingles and winning contests. COMMENTS: After reading this book I knew that I wanted to see the movie as soon as possible. Unfortunately it has such little theatrical release I never had the opportunity. It was with great pleasure that it came up so quickly on my Netflix queue upon its DVD release. It was only because of a very busy week that I didn’t watch it until nearly a week later. Many times I have been disappointed in movies I have seen after reading the book—they just fail to achieve the expectation I had. I am pleased to say I wasn’t at all disappointed in the movie version of this book. Although I was quite young in the years the movie was set, I do remember these contests. They were found all over the place – in magazines, in the stores, and on television. Obviously Evelyn Ryan had quite a knack for winning these contests both out of talent and necessity. While the book was written as quite the tribute to her mother by Terry “Tuff” Ryan, the movie depicts the family’s way of life, sometimes quite painfully. Somehow Evelyn keeps her family of 10 children together despite her abusive, alcoholic husband whose nightly drinking binges are not as much detailed in the movie as they are in the book but are still disturbing. One of the lighter scenes is when Evelyn finally meets up with a group of other jingle writers with whom she has been corresponding. All in all, a very good movie but I think probably even of more interest to those who have read the book than those who haven’t.