The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio

The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio is an interesting movie based on a 1950’s suburban housewife, Evelyn Ryan (Julianne Moore), who supports her extremely large family by winning jingle contests, much to the growing chagrin of her husband, Kelly (Woody Harrelson). Evelyn’s struggle with her societal designation as a housewife despite her impressive verbal talents provided an interesting look at pre-feminist American culture, so I think this movie will vastly appeal to women as well as English majors.

The film is based on the true story of Evelyn Ryan, who lives in Defiance, Ohio with her husband, Kelly, and their 10 children. Evelyn has a gift with words, and between caring for her children, housekeeping, and cooking, she enters numerous jingle contests as a creative (and financially motivated) outlet for her keen intellect. Kelly is resentful of her success, inasmuch as he is forced to endure the taunting of his coworkers and neighbors, who question his ability to provide for his family by referring to Evelyn as the real breadwinner. Despite his clear devotion to Evelyn, he can barely suppress his resentment and humiliation, so he resorts to alcohol to solve his internal manhood issues. Unfortunately, by spending the majority of his paycheck on booze, he forces Evelyn to continue entering and winning contests in order to support the family, which perpetuates his bitterness and ever-simmering anger. Evelyn, for her part, remains relentlessly optimistic and cheerful, attempting to convince herself as much as her family that she is happy with her life and able to conquer any of the problems that perpetually threaten their tenuous financial state.

The screenplay for this film was based on a book written by one of Evelyn’s daughters about her mother’s perseverance in the face of constant poverty. It is apparent then, that while the movie is narrated by Evelyn and therefore ostensibly told from her perspective, it is in actuality a story told from the vantage point of her children. I began to suspect this fact halfway through the movie when I noticed that Evelyn was really just too damn happy all the time (as Kelly himself remarks at one point). As I’m fairly certain Prozac was not around back in those days, I can only assume that her character’s unyielding optimism was probably a product of putting on a tough façade in front of her children. Literally, no matter what horrible catastrophe occurs, Evelyn simply smiles, says something soothing, and gets to work on a solution. Her kids make a failed attempt at changing a diaper and make a disgusting mess everywhere; Kelly destroys Evelyn’s brand new freezer in a fit of rage; she slips and falls on fresh jars of milk, breaking all of them and severely gashing her hands; aliens kidnap her first born son; yet, these events merely serve to inspire a jazzy new jingle in her mind as she cheerfully goes about dealing with whatever calamity has occurred.

I don’t mean to say that this is a bad movie, because it was actually quite interesting. I would say that many people will really enjoy it, and I myself found it to be an intriguing look at one woman’s struggle in the repressive 1950’s and early 1960’s. From what I have read, the movie is very true to the book, which is in all likelihood quite an accurate account from the daughter’s perspective. I definitely recommend this movie to women but also to anyone who can relate to feeling trapped in a world that won’t allow one to reach her (or his) full potential.