reviewed by Rissi C.
      

Housewife and mother of ten kids, optimistic Evelyn Ryan (Julianne Moore) has no other choice but to be resourceful. Her husband Kelly Ryan (Woody Harrelson) works as a machinist and is always spending his hard earned money on liquor instead of seeing to the needs of his family. Seeing a commercial on TV for a contest that involves finishing a jingle for a TV ad, Evelyn, who in her younger, carefree days was an aspiring magazine writer, enters. Not expecting much to come of her entry, Evelyn is surprised to learn that she has been chosen as the winning entry.

Buying a house with her first prize, the excited family moves in and continue on in their daily lives. Despite their small bit of good fortune trouble still follows the Ryan family; difficulty in paying the milkman, the constant strain of Kelly's bad temper and electricity problems with a new freezer that they cant even fill all while dealing with oldest children Lea Anne (Monte Gagne) and two oldest sons leaving home. Over the next four years Evelyn continues to enter contests and have some good fortune at winning the jiggle writing competitions. As things continue to stay the same with husband Kelly, Evelyn must now deal with some of her children's resentment towards their father. Especially when it comes to daughter Tuff, who begins to see things that will never and can never change, and becomes reluctant to feel anything but resentment towards her father. Quickly growing into a young lady, Evelyn will have to help Tuff along, so that in her life she will be able to live without anger and hurt.

This true story of a woman who raised her ten kids on twenty-five words or less is a nice American story that has one or two bumps along the way, based on daughter Terry Tuff Ryan's story about her mothers life. Content is fairly free of anything too offensive, but worthy of caution. Kelly Ryan is a drinker and likes his liquor, as we come to find out about ten to fifteen minutes into the film. When in a drinking rampage, Kelly becomes angry over a new freezer and starts to tear the kitchen apart. It is never suggested though that he is in any way abusive towards his family, though he does chase one of his sons around once making threats and a few times grabs Evelyn by the arm. I don't think that he ever made good on any threats though. After a car accident a man is shown with blood coming out from his throat. While carrying glass jugs a woman falls and cuts herself, we see blood on her hands and staining her dress, along with a fair amount on the floor. The most disturbing content is the constant use of strong language, although when its used it comes in a cluster while Kelly is drinking and yelling. This probably is a better bet for an older audience as it wouldn't interest children thirteen and under.

Watching this was a long time coming; I had looked at it several times and when retuning my last videos decided to rent this. It both surprised and touched me more than my expectations for it. Evelyn's optimistic manner and resourceful ways make the viewer feel as if the hard times the family has gone through are going to pass and they will be able to pull through. As the movie goes on we see as more of Evelyn's manner becomes tired and she eventually loses some of her optimism. Julianne Moore narrates this film for at least the first fifteen minutes and some again at the end. I'm not sure the addition of narrating was an aspect that was enjoyable as it didn't seem to be as smoothly transferred as it could have been. This movie is very enjoyable but then I've found most true stories are better than most. Through the whole movie you are sorry that Evelyn is married to Kelly and that her children aren't happy with him. But then we all make our own choices and Evelyn made hers. Things just continue to get worse and worse in their life and while Kelly is the only one who works outside the home, Evelyn is the one who keeps her family together and ultimately pays for their provisions. Ending on a sad note at the conclusion this story was still worth renting in the dollar section of the video store. We even get to see the real Ryan kids and learn what became of them, which was a nice addition to the screenplay.