The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio

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The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio

Directed by	Jane Anderson
Produced by	Jack Rapke
Written by	Terry Ryan (book) Jane Anderson
Starring	Julianne Moore Woody Harrelson Laura Dern
Distributed by	DreamWorks
Release date(s)	September 2005 (USA)
Running time	99 min
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio is a 2005 film written and directed by Jane Anderson, based on the book by Terry "Tuff" Ryan.

The DVD was released on March 14, 2006.

Tagline: The true story of how a mother raised ten kids on twenty-five words or less.

1 Synopsis
2 Critical reception
3 Cast
4 Trivia
5 Notes
6 External links

[edit] Synopsis

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio is based on the true story of housewife Evelyn Ryan, who helped support her family by winning entries in jingle-writing contests.

Evelyn's husband, Kelly, failed to support their family in part due to apparent alcoholism. He had dreamed of being a singer but lost his singing voice in a car accident, and was often cruel and abusive.

In the movie, Evelyn wins a large freezer, ice buckets, a washing machine, a trip to New York, sleds, boots, a pony, a palm tree, a window, a sports car, a shopping spree in her local grocery store, ice crushers, a camera, dance shoes, a boat motor, pogo sticks, a case of dog food, and a life time supply of bird seed. Kelly, who feels like his role as provider for the family is being threatened, criticizes Evelyn and sometimes damages the prizes she wins. Their children side with her. At one point, Kelly gets angry at his wife and knocks her over with about 12 full glass bottles of milk, causing her to nearly sever a ligament. Evelyn is able to talk him down after each incident and, temporarily at least, he treats her better.

Evelyn is largely isolated because of the hours she has to spend caring for the children and the lack of local intellectual equals. However, she is contacted by a group of other contest-entering mid-western housewives and befriends them.

Ultimately, Evelyn discovers that Kelly had secretly taken out a second mortgage on their house and never made payments on it, leaving the family subject to an almost-certain foreclosure. The children pray for their mother's miraculous victory in a contest sponsored by Dr Pepper. She wins and pays the mortgage on the house.

In the closing sequence, set years later, we learn that after Kelly died, Evelyn finds out that he has placed his pension checks in a bank account especially for her. The actual Ryan children are then shown as adults, including the actual Betsy Ryan and Terry "Tuff" Ryan, the author of the book.

[edit] Critical reception

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 1/2 out of 4 stars, remarking that the movie "avoids obvious sentiment and predictable emotion and shows this woman somehow holding it together year after year, entering goofy contests that for her family mean life and death."^[1]

[edit] Cast

Ellary Porterfield as Tuff Ryan

Julianne Moore – Evelyn Ryan
Woody Harrelson – Leo "Kelly" Ryan
Laura Dern – Dortha Schaefer
Trevor Morgan – Bruce
Simon Reynolds – Ray the Milkman
Monte Gagne – Lee Ann Ryan
Jordan Todosey – young Tuff Ryan
Ellary Porterfield – Tuff Ryan

[edit] Trivia

The movie was filmed in Paris, Ontario and not in Defiance, Ohio.

Some of the dresses Julianne Moore wears in the movie were actually Evelyn Ryan's, which her children had saved and then allowed the filmmakers to use.^{[citation needed]}