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Starring: Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, Laura Dern

Directed By: Jane Anderson

The Prize Winner of Defiance is an unsentimental take on “How My Mother raised 10 kids on 25 words or less.” And she does make it finally with her taking part in goofy contests to support her large family. Julianne Moore who plays Evelyn Ryan is one of the best contesters in America. Julianne works with a character that has to go through a lot when it comes to her family. But she still pushes on even though everything seems to fall apart. She has also some clever lines that are part of the narrative. It is an interesting way of how the director enters the characters head. Yes it is done before but never in such an endearing way.

Evelyn Ryan keeps winning prizes at times when all is lost in her household. Every time she wins it’s a comment on the struggle they have to face. But the choice she has made is what has led her to so many struggles. But it is when her entry is chosen over 250,000 in the final act of this story that is when the film becomes sublime when she tells her daughter “And it wasn’t even my best one!”

Even the tussles she has with the milkman are totally unforgettable. Evelyn always chooses her words really carefully when she is faced with conflict. This is one of her strengths. It keeps her disconnected from all the turmoil that is happening in the family. She has only one thing in her mind to make sure her family is well and good.

The other force in the film is Woody Harrelson who plays Kelly aka Father and Evelyn is called Mother. He was a man at his prime but after a freak accident he lost his singing voice. This makes him take to the bottle and he doesn’t seem to stop. This leads to a really depressing domestic situation and causes a lot of grief among the children. But Kelly is not a bad man he doesn’t beat his wife or anything but he just can’t take the fact that his wife is a bread winner for the family. Julianne Moore plays Evelyn with an eerie sense of optimism something that has stemmed out of all that she is put through in a day.

Julianne Moore is an actress who is still way ahead of her time with works like Safe and Boogie Nights. She just enjoys herself playing this emotionally defeated yet morally uplifting character with an unusual grace that is similar to her take in Far From Heaven. But for me the most understated performance was that of Woody Harrelson who seems to be sidelined but still steals many of the scenes and makes this movie something more than what it tries to be.

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