|
| Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, The |
|
  (8/10)
|
Runtime: 99 |
| Public Rating: 8.88 (8 votes) |
Director: Jane Anderson |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Drama/Comedy |
Year: 2005 |
| Writer(s): Jane Anderson (screenplay), Terry Ryan (memoir) |
| Distributor: DreamWorks Pictures |
| Reviewed by: Mel Valentin |
| |
In describing The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, written and directed by Jane Anderson (the telefilms Normal, The Big Dance, Emmy-award winning writer of The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom) and based on the memoirs of the same title by Terry Ryan, the temptation to use words like “uplifting,” “inspirational,” and “heartwarming,” will be nearly overwhelming. Although those words are, to some extent, accurate, The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio is more than a sentimental paean to the indomitable spirit of a working-class mother and housewife during the late 1950s through the mid-sixties. The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio is also an incisive, revealing portrait of the stifling social and cultural conventions that placed unequal, sometimes staggering burdens on women and men during the 1950s and early 1960s (before social and political activism ushered in newly defined roles for men, women, and people of color).
Evelyn Ryan (Julianne Moore, impossibly glamorous) is emblematic of women during the 1950s (or at least 50s-era women in the popular imagination), defined by her roles as mother of ten children and wife to Joe “Kelly” Ryan (Woody Harrelson, paunchy and unhealthy looking). In addition to the numerous chores related to keeping her ten children fed, clothed, and in relatively good emotional health, Evelyn has to contend with Kelly’s alcoholism. Not only does Kelly’s alcoholism negatively affect his family (and, on occasion, his relationship with his neighbors), it also impairs the family’s financial prospects and their ability to obtain the accoutrements of a solidly middle-class lifestyle. Despite steady employment as a machinist with a local company, Kelly drinks most of his earnings away, leaving Evelyn to both raise her family and somehow earn enough money or prizes to make up the difference.
Evelyn does (earn money, that is), through the lucrative sideline in entering and winning jingle contests sponsored by corporations and television programs. Evelyn’s obvious wordsmithing gifts (she wins everything from local poetry contests to national advertising campaigns) saves her family from penury and homelessness, but it also proves an ongoing source of conflict with her resentful, insecure husband, whose alcoholic-fueled rages often border on the violent (Evelyn’s role borders on mothering her husband during his drunken rages). As Evelyn struggles to raise and feed her family, her children inevitably grow up, leaving the nest in ones and twos. Even then, Evelyn’s hopes of travel or friendship with other contesters (as they call themselves) meet with frustration, as duties and responsibilities interfere with Evelyn’s desire to develop a semblance of a private life outside of her family. The Ryan family’s rising and family financial fortunes culminate in a dramatic drop off in those fortunes, with Evelyn’s verbal skills once again called on to save the family from losing their tenuous grasp on the middle-class American Dream.
Evelyn, of course, emerges as a singularly sympathetic figure, in no small part to Julianne Moore’s typically nuanced, restrained performance and Jane Anderson’s equally strong screenplay, that only stumbles twice, in a dialogue scene between Evelyn and one of her daughters, future author Terry “Tuff” Ryan (Ellary Porterfield), that slips uncomfortably into cliché and, more importantly, a Schindler’s List moment that’s both unnecessary and unsubtle, unnecessary and unsubtle because the simple, spare black-and-white sequence that close The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio is far more effective emotionally and less obviously manipulative and sentimental (which, up to that point, Anderson had handled with a sure, steady hand).
Minor flaws aside, Anderson deserves ample credit for crafting an engaging, absorbing screenplay of an era where patriarchical norms left talented women limited life options, but almost as importantly, Anderson doesn't make Kelly an unsympathetic villain or antagonist. He may be, at times, Evelyn’s oppressor (and problem child), but Kelly’s also depicted as a victim of the patriarchical norms that unreflexively make him less a man for his lack of career or financial success. Anderson, and presumably, Terry Ryan in her memoirs, make Kelly a flawed, ambivalent figure. He sheds tears at his wife winning a contest, a mix of happiness, relief, and, most likely, shame and embarrassment. Credit there goes as well to Woody Harrelson’s portrayal of Kelly Ryan, which could have easily descended into hateful, detestable caricature. It never does.
Jane Anderson’s screenplay is surprisingly complemented by an equally assured attention to the visual aspects of cinema. It’s surprising due to Anderson’s relative inexperience. Anderson’s previous directorial experience includes only two made-for-television films. Modest budgets and prosaic, unobtrusive, and yes, generic, visual styles typically define the average made-for-television film. With a larger budget, Anderson’s visual inventiveness has been given full reign. Whether it’s employing direct-to-camera narration by Evelyn, or having Evelyn as the narrator sharing on screen space with a “past” version of herself, or, more remarkably, in the campy, colorful musical interludes that utilize digital effects, Anderson never loses control of the material, substituting flashy visuals or overdetermined style for character or content. That alone makes Jane Anderson’s next feature film one worth anticipating by critics and audiences alike.
© Mel Valentin, 29th September, 2005
|
 Printable Version
|
Do you agree/disagree with this review of Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, The? Let your opinions be heard in our forum.
|
Buy the Poster of Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, The (Click Here)
|
|
|
|
