Big fan of 2003's movie adaptation of "Cheaper By The Dozen?" Did you enthusiastically tell all your friends to go see "Daddy Day Care?" Unfortunately for you, The only thing "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio" has in common with those movies is a swarm of children.
This film, based on the memoir "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised Ten Kids on 25 Words or Less," adapted for the screen by writer and director Jane Anderson, tells the story of Evelyn Ryan (Julianne Moore), her husband Kelly (Woody Harrelson), and their ten children growing up in 1950's suburbia. Although Evelyn is a suburban 50's housewife, she's hardly the traditional matriarch. While Kelly squanders his paycheck at the liquor store, Evelyn keeps her family afloat financially by entering creative writing contests for everything from poetry to advertisement jingles, hoping to win cash prizes, bicycles, immense freezers, or ten-minute shopping sprees, among other rewards. At the same time that Evelyn juggles ten kids and her "contesting," she must also cope with the alcoholism of Kelly, whom she continues to love despite his violence, jealousy, and condescension.
This seemingly undying love is perhaps the least plausible part of the movie. When Kelly smashes up Evelyn's new freezer in an alcohol-fueled rage, Evelyn shows no anger. When he tells her she's "too damn happy," she only continues to be her impossibly cheerful self. When Kelly grabs Evelyn's arm forcefully, causing her to drop the milk bottles she's carrying and cut herself on the glass, she later allows him to help change her bandages. And when she finds out he took out a second mortgage on the house without telling her, she simply continues her contesting.
Even Evelyn's children stand up to their father more than Evelyn does, with lines like "How 'bout you don't spend so much at the liquor store?" Unfortunately, instances like these are often overshadowed by the level of anonymity shared by nine of the ten children in the family. At times, the camera pans over faces of children who don't even look familiar, and it is nearly impossible to remember any of their names. The one Ryan child who does stand out is Terry, or "Tuff," owing to the fact that the real-life, grown-up Terry wrote the memoir upon which the film is based.
In any case, "Prize Winner" is in no way a standard 1950s suburban family story. The roles of the authority figures have arguably been reversed, with the mother as the primary breadwinner, despite staying at home, and with the children's utter lack of respect for their father. Additionally, Anderson successfully infused the movie with unique characteristics that set it apart from typical 50's films.
For example, the opening sequence of the film features two Evelyns, one going about her daily life and one introducing the movie in the style of 1950's commercials by talking directly to the camera, immediately showing the role that advertisements will play in the story. Anderson was also able to effectively introduce various humorous lines and moments into the movie at key points to balance the serious, heavy topic with which she was dealing.
For example, when the local priest in Defiance, the small town locale where the movie takes place, comes to visit the Ryan household, one of the children remarks, "His breath smells like Dad's," referring to the alcoholic tendencies of his father.
While part of what was unique about Evelyn was her incomparable patience, it does become hard to believe at some point that anyone could remain so upbeat. Just when it begins to push the envelope of credibility, however, Evelyn rises up in a sweet moment of redemption. All in all, "Prize Winner" should be a prize-winner itself.
