Nice feel-good DVD to recommend

A friend asked me to help order this DVD from the internet and before we passed it to her, wife and I sat down on Friday night to watch it.

The movie is adapted from a book, titled "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less" by Terry Ryan. It stars one of my favourite actress Julianne Moore as the mother. The movie was produced in 2005 but somehow didnt make it to our shores.

We were not aware of this book and the movie till my friend recommended it. We enjoyed the show very much. The show is about this family of 12 and the ups and downs and how they get by. The father, played by Woody Harrelson, supposedly the breadwinner of the family, did not bring home enough money to feed everyone due to his drinking addiction. Luckily the mother, Everlyn Ryan has a flair with words and poetry and she would join jingles contests and a whole lot of others and win household items for the family. The story is set back in the 50s, so you can imagine how much these prizes were to them.

If you want a feel-good movie, this is it. Julianne Moore did a very good job in portraying the character of the mother, so positive that you just like her. Her smile, her mannerism, her ability to diffuse anger is something that we should all learn.

This movie is adapted from a true story, from the eyes of the daughter's Terry Ryan who wrote the memoir. You get to see the real life kids (old adults now) making an appearance towards the end of the movie. Having watched the film version, I will try to get hold of the book and read to know more about the Ryan family.