Julianne Moore is a wonderful actress. In "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio," she gets no big showy scenes, no moments where she acknowledges her own talent by ACTING. There are no breakdowns, crack ups, manias or histrionics. The movie goes down easy and, once the DVD player has been turned off, is just as easy to forget.
But I woke up the morning after having watched this movie thinking about Julianne Moore (and no, not in THAT way). I realized that this disarmingly unshowy performance had a powerful impact on me; through an accumulation of small, quiet moments and carefully crafted acting choices, Moore creates a full-bodied, rich and entirely satisfying character out of material that threatens at every step to descend into irretrievable schmaltz. It's a small miracle of acting.
Unfortunately, Woody Harrelson does not fare as well. His blustery, childish and pathetic father is believable only about 50% of the time. The movie is almost ridiculously one sided, and it's only Moore's expert and disciplined handling of her role that prevents the mother from coming across as too good to be true.
The material is gooey and sentimental, but it's surprisingly less sentimental than I feared it would be. And anyway, sentiment like this I can forgive, since I'm bound to be a slobbery sentimental mess about my own parents some day too.
Grade: B+
But I woke up the morning after having watched this movie thinking about Julianne Moore (and no, not in THAT way). I realized that this disarmingly unshowy performance had a powerful impact on me; through an accumulation of small, quiet moments and carefully crafted acting choices, Moore creates a full-bodied, rich and entirely satisfying character out of material that threatens at every step to descend into irretrievable schmaltz. It's a small miracle of acting.
Unfortunately, Woody Harrelson does not fare as well. His blustery, childish and pathetic father is believable only about 50% of the time. The movie is almost ridiculously one sided, and it's only Moore's expert and disciplined handling of her role that prevents the mother from coming across as too good to be true.
The material is gooey and sentimental, but it's surprisingly less sentimental than I feared it would be. And anyway, sentiment like this I can forgive, since I'm bound to be a slobbery sentimental mess about my own parents some day too.
Grade: B+