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.

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

1 Synopsis
2 Cast
3 DVD
4 Trivia
5 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio is the true story of how housewife Evelyn Ryan managed to make a living out of winning entries in jingle-writing contests.

In the movie, Evelyn, a mother of ten, tries to win enough jingle contests to support her family due to the lack of support from her alcoholic husband, Kelly, who spent all of his salary on alcohol. Kelly is a man who dreamed of being a singer but lost his voice in a car accident, and in the process, became cold and often cruel and abusive.

Throughout the movie, she wins such things as a large freezer, ice buckets, a washing machine, a trip to New York, and a shopping spree in her local grocery store. All the while, Kelly, who feels like his role as a man is being threatened, continually criticizes Evelyn and damages the prizes she wins. His children begin to feel animosity towards him as they see that he is not supporting the family and how he treats their mother. At one point in the film, he gets angry at his wife for buying milk for the family and knocks her over, causing her to bleed severely. Evelyn says that she wants Kelly to distance himself from her, and Kelly begins treating her better.

One day, Evelyn found out that Kelly had taken out a second mortgage on the house and due to a lack of payment on it, the house would be repossessed by the bank. The family prays hard for a miracle in a dire period, hoping for a miraculous win from the Dr. Pepper contest that Evelyn has entered. Evelyn manages to win the Dr. Pepper contest and is able to pay the mortgage on the house. Kelly eventually dies, but Evelyn finds out that he has tried to redeem himself by placing all of his pension checks in a bank account especially for her. When she died, her children return to the house and sort through her things. We see the Ryan children as adults, including the actual Betsy Ryan and Terry "Tuff" Ryan, the author of the book.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Cast

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 – Tuff Ryan

[edit] DVD

The DVD was released on March 14, 2006.

[edit] Trivia

Contrary to its title, the movie was not filmed in Defiance, Ohio. It was filmed in a small town near Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Some of the dresses Julianne Moore wears in the movie were actually Evelyn Ryan's, which her children had saved and then allowed the movie makers to use.