''The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio''レビュー
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http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050921/review_nm/review_film_prize_dc_1
Julianne Moore's 'Prize' a winner
By Sheri Linden
Wed Sep 21, 7:09 PM ET
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Toward the end of "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio," Julianne Moore's plucky homemaker uncharacteristically snaps at her ne'er-do-well husband that she's no saint.
Perhaps not, but she comes pretty darn close. Writer-director Jane Anderson has adapted Terry Ryan's best-selling valentine to her remarkable mom, subtitled "How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less," into a spirited comic drama, toplined by Moore's lovely performance. "Prize Winner" should be a leading entry, especially with females and older audiences.
Evelyn Ryan was an ardent member of a midcentury subculture called contesting, peopled mainly by word-savvy American housewives who entered the myriad jingle and slogan contests advertisers used to promote their products. In her case, it was less diversion than career, the cash and merchandise keeping her family afloat. It wasn't merely that Evelyn had six sons and four daughters to feed; counting her alcoholic husband (well played by Woody Harrelson), she had 11 kids. Anderson ("The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom," "Normal") neither skirts nor belabors the story's dark issues while kicking up some fun with the sloganeering.
At the film's outset, a $5,000 prize arrives just as the Ryans need to find a new place to live, providing the down payment on a clapboard house. But Evelyn, who earned the money, can keep her prim white gloves on at the bank; she's not invited to sign the mortgage. This is 1956, when Miss America contestants confidently proclaim that women are too high-strung and emotional to hold national office.
Evelyn's unspoken indignation is clear, but her most extraordinary traits are a steadfast resilience and Zen-like devotion to the here and now, never lingering long enough in trying situations to feel put-upon or become bitter. And the trying moments are plentiful, from her weekly go-rounds forestalling creditors like the milkman (Simon Reynolds) to the nightly drinking binges of her husband, Kelly, which often turn violent. Self-reliance is her only choice; the cops tell her he'll sleep it off, and the priest (David Gardner) advises her to make a better home.
A one-time aspiring journalist, Evelyn doesn't coddle her needy husband but has limitless empathy for the stylish crooner's fall from grace into the "ranks of ordinary men" as a factory machinist. A cavernous freezer Evelyn wins provokes Kelly's rage because it's a constant reminder of his inability to fill it. While she happily brainstorms couplets, he offers a few self-loathing jingles. But Harrelson also provides evidence of the charmer who once romanced this bright woman.
Evelyn's only support system, besides her kids, is a group of high-achieving contesters who call themselves the Affadaisies and help each other craft haikus to consumerism. A writers workshop posing as a coffee klatch, the out-of-the-house adventure has an immediate effect on Evelyn, who stands up to Kelly with renewed vigor upon her return home (and comes up with a jingle in the process). It would have been good to see more of the Affadaisies, especially when Laura Dern plays the club's leader.
Contemporary audiences used to psychologizing might write off as denial Evelyn's cheeriness in the face of Kelly's spiteful anger. But Moore, whose luminosity has often graced more brittle, troubled characters, brings to life something deeper and wiser, something almost subversive in her character's refusal to be damaged. The film deftly avoids sappiness until Evelyn's everything-is-possible speech to daughter Tuff (Ellary Porterfield, well cast as the author, who has no Daddy's-girl sympathy for Kelly).
Ace design contributions from Edward T. McAvoy and Hala Bahmet re-create the period with verisimilitude and flair, particularly in the joyous set piece of a grocery store shopping spree -- just one of the fabulous prizes Evelyn Ryan won for her family.
Cast:
Evelyn Ryan: Julianne Moore
Kelly Ryan: Woody Harrelson
Bruce Ryan (age 16): Trevor Morgan
Tuff Ryan (ages 13, 16, 18): Ellary Porterfield
Dortha Schaefer: Laura Dern
Ray the Milkman: Simon Reynolds
Father McCague: David Gardner
Mrs. Bidlack: Susan Merson
Rog Ryan (age 13): Erik Knudsen.
Director-screenwriter: Jane Anderson; Based on the memoir "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less" by: Terry Ryan; Producers: Jack Rapke, Steve Starkey, Robert Zemeckis; Executive producer: Marty Ewing; Director of photography: Jonathan Freeman; Production designer: Edward T. McAvoy; Music: John Frizzell; Costume designer: Hala Bahmet; Editor: Robert Dalva.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050921/review_nm/review_film_prize_dc_1
Julianne Moore's 'Prize' a winner
By Sheri Linden
Wed Sep 21, 7:09 PM ET
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Toward the end of "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio," Julianne Moore's plucky homemaker uncharacteristically snaps at her ne'er-do-well husband that she's no saint.
Perhaps not, but she comes pretty darn close. Writer-director Jane Anderson has adapted Terry Ryan's best-selling valentine to her remarkable mom, subtitled "How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less," into a spirited comic drama, toplined by Moore's lovely performance. "Prize Winner" should be a leading entry, especially with females and older audiences.
Evelyn Ryan was an ardent member of a midcentury subculture called contesting, peopled mainly by word-savvy American housewives who entered the myriad jingle and slogan contests advertisers used to promote their products. In her case, it was less diversion than career, the cash and merchandise keeping her family afloat. It wasn't merely that Evelyn had six sons and four daughters to feed; counting her alcoholic husband (well played by Woody Harrelson), she had 11 kids. Anderson ("The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom," "Normal") neither skirts nor belabors the story's dark issues while kicking up some fun with the sloganeering.
At the film's outset, a $5,000 prize arrives just as the Ryans need to find a new place to live, providing the down payment on a clapboard house. But Evelyn, who earned the money, can keep her prim white gloves on at the bank; she's not invited to sign the mortgage. This is 1956, when Miss America contestants confidently proclaim that women are too high-strung and emotional to hold national office.
Evelyn's unspoken indignation is clear, but her most extraordinary traits are a steadfast resilience and Zen-like devotion to the here and now, never lingering long enough in trying situations to feel put-upon or become bitter. And the trying moments are plentiful, from her weekly go-rounds forestalling creditors like the milkman (Simon Reynolds) to the nightly drinking binges of her husband, Kelly, which often turn violent. Self-reliance is her only choice; the cops tell her he'll sleep it off, and the priest (David Gardner) advises her to make a better home.
A one-time aspiring journalist, Evelyn doesn't coddle her needy husband but has limitless empathy for the stylish crooner's fall from grace into the "ranks of ordinary men" as a factory machinist. A cavernous freezer Evelyn wins provokes Kelly's rage because it's a constant reminder of his inability to fill it. While she happily brainstorms couplets, he offers a few self-loathing jingles. But Harrelson also provides evidence of the charmer who once romanced this bright woman.
Evelyn's only support system, besides her kids, is a group of high-achieving contesters who call themselves the Affadaisies and help each other craft haikus to consumerism. A writers workshop posing as a coffee klatch, the out-of-the-house adventure has an immediate effect on Evelyn, who stands up to Kelly with renewed vigor upon her return home (and comes up with a jingle in the process). It would have been good to see more of the Affadaisies, especially when Laura Dern plays the club's leader.
Contemporary audiences used to psychologizing might write off as denial Evelyn's cheeriness in the face of Kelly's spiteful anger. But Moore, whose luminosity has often graced more brittle, troubled characters, brings to life something deeper and wiser, something almost subversive in her character's refusal to be damaged. The film deftly avoids sappiness until Evelyn's everything-is-possible speech to daughter Tuff (Ellary Porterfield, well cast as the author, who has no Daddy's-girl sympathy for Kelly).
Ace design contributions from Edward T. McAvoy and Hala Bahmet re-create the period with verisimilitude and flair, particularly in the joyous set piece of a grocery store shopping spree -- just one of the fabulous prizes Evelyn Ryan won for her family.
Cast:
Evelyn Ryan: Julianne Moore
Kelly Ryan: Woody Harrelson
Bruce Ryan (age 16): Trevor Morgan
Tuff Ryan (ages 13, 16, 18): Ellary Porterfield
Dortha Schaefer: Laura Dern
Ray the Milkman: Simon Reynolds
Father McCague: David Gardner
Mrs. Bidlack: Susan Merson
Rog Ryan (age 13): Erik Knudsen.
Director-screenwriter: Jane Anderson; Based on the memoir "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less" by: Terry Ryan; Producers: Jack Rapke, Steve Starkey, Robert Zemeckis; Executive producer: Marty Ewing; Director of photography: Jonathan Freeman; Production designer: Edward T. McAvoy; Music: John Frizzell; Costume designer: Hala Bahmet; Editor: Robert Dalva.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter