Evelyn (Julianne Moore) and Kelly Ryan (Woody Harrelson) struggle to survive raising ten kids. Evelyn spends all her energy entering every contest multiple times. Kelly is an abusive angry violent drunk. The better she does, the angrier he becomes. It's a chauvinist world where Evelyn has no options and no help from the authorities. Dortha Schaefer (Laura Dern) leads a group of fellow contest enthusiasts and soul mates.This is great at painting life in a certain era. Moore and Harrelson form an interesting pair. It's not a simple marriage that is all bad or all good. It's an extreme mix bag. Ellary Porterfield is a compelling Tuff. The light whimsical tone does not always fit and a less fluffy tone could deliver the tougher drama better.

This film isn't about anything of Earth-shattering importance, except to the real-life family whose story it tells. In it are many fine examples of how a wonderful woman, and loving, long-suffering, wife and mother, made things happen for her family, raising 10 happy and successful children, in spite of serious trials. Not only that, but she manages to keep smiling and looking at the bright side, through all but the most difficult. It's acted very well, although I will say that I found Woody Harrelson, as the father, in a red wig, pulled it down, in a few spots. I don't think the problem was his performance, I just don't think he was especially suited to the role.Overall, this film is VERY well worth the time to watch it!

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (2005)A chipper, sometimes funny, sometimes balmy film about the brilliance and determination of one woman during the apparently naive commercial idiocy of the 1950s in the United States.And Julianne Moore nails it as Evelyn, making this quirky, lightweight story take on a tinge of truth and depth. Enough to make it a fun film, but also a trenchant one. At times.Woody Harrelson plays the husband here, with not quite as much conviction as you'd like (he's a better middle class grunt in "True Detectives"). And Laura Dern has a really small role as an echo of the housewife played by Moore. What the woman have in common here is not just willfully playing out their roles as homemakers, which is fair enough, and of secondary characters outside the home, which is not. They are also contest players—and winners. Evelyn in particular has a knack for a turn of phrase that fits the corny jingles and slogans of this pre- Mad Men era in advertising.Part of the appeal here is easily the re-creation of the world, with its cars and houses and clothes. And attitudes. I'm just young enough to not know if it's accurate, and just old enough to know that it's exaggerated. And yet tongue is not quite in cheek here. There's the feeling that this is all meant to seem exactly how it was, and that's where it's a little too "Donna Reed" all along. I can only assume that life was a little less shallow than it comes off here. But who knows? It did strike me that the timing was off at times, that the cars were at times too old for the year (back then, people in the suburbs upgraded their cars often), and the music was out of sync by far. The push for a false innocence is closer to a Wes Anderson fantasy than anything.Which is fine! It's still "a gas" to watch, "terrif" from beginning to end. And Julianne Moore is quite amazing, as complex and interesting as the character needed to be. And under the radar movie. Recommended.

This movie has been played close to 100 times in the last 5 months on TV, but in was on the high end channels' 370 to 380 digital. Later it had gotten down to lower channel 149 to 171. These are commercial free and I'm glad I taped it as a favorite family movie. I hope this movie is someday shown on the regular 2 digit channels so more people can see it, like they did with "October Sky". In the movie, the dress code seemed right for the time period. Of course, after seeing the movie I had to go to the internet to dig up everything a could on the Ryan family. Just a few minutes ago, I found the Terry (the writer) had died of cancer a couple of months ago. It was great that the book came out and was made into movie. Of course, Terry herself, showing that old typewriter, was in it at the end as well as all the Ryan children. It was a good ending to a good movie.