I generally like Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson and Laura Dern so it stands to reason that I’d be interested in anything starring the three of them. Add to that the fact that I’m something of a sucker for “true stories” (although in recent years Ron Howard has taken some liberties with that term). Put all them together and you’ve got The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (I can’t remember the last time I saw a comma in a movie title).
Here’s the synopsis of the film:
Evelyn Ryan (Julianne Moore) is a devoted housewife and mother of ten in the 1950s. Her husband (Woody Harrelson) can’t seem to make ends meet, but that doesn’t stop the car from breaking down, the mortgage coming due and the bills from piling up. It falls to Evelyn to defy the conventions of the day and find a way to keep her family together with the odds stacked against them. Applying her remarkable resourcefulness and an uncommon wit, Evelyn finds her own way in the profitable jingle contests popular in the 1950s and ‘60s.
I gave the trailer a look over and it looks pretty good, even if it tastes a little like the standard 50’s-60’s hard times formula… it still worked for me. If you want to take a peak at it yourself, just head over here.
