Ryan was a whiz at ''contesting,'' an activity she practiced like a sport. Her rhymes earned prizes of all shapes and sizes, to the delight of her children and the consternation of her blue-collar husband, who felt intimidated by his wife's ability to bring home things he could never afford. Father may have been the family breadwinner, but she won everything else, from appliances to cars to a year's supply of birdseed.

With four Oscar nominations and three Golden Globe nods to her name, it's time someone awarded Julianne Moore a prize. She's one of the top actresses of her generation, capable of mixing a fragile exterior with inner strength the way few of her peers can. Prize Winner is a case in point: As Evelyn Ryan, Moore takes a role in what might otherwise have been a trite family portrait and creates a character of remarkable depth. She's like a porcelain doll with a titanium spirit, smiling in spite of her situation. Where other actresses debate doing nude scenes, Moore repeatedly bares her soul. Here, she gives us an unobstructed view straight into Evelyn's over-generous heart.

In the past, we've seen Moore take top notch material and make the most of it (consider Short Cuts, Safe, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Far From Heaven, just to name a few), but here, her performance elevates the entire film. With its predictable confrontations and tacky fantasy sequences, you feel writer/director Jane Anderson steering the material toward schmaltzy movie-of-the-week territory at every turn, but Moore grounds the central performance with the instinct only a real mother could bring.

Rarely do we see parents given their due in movies. By and large, most movies seem to find disgruntled progeny working out their unresolved issues with their parents on screen, and Prize Winner is no exception. Based on Terry ''Tuffy'' Ryan's memoir of the same name (published with the added catchy subtitle, "How my mother raised 10 kids on 25 words or less''), the movie feels like a way of getting even with daddy by way of the most reverential portrait possible of a courageous mother.

That might explain the overheard ''saint'' comment I mentioned earlier, considering that the movie casts Woody Harrelson as the occasionally deadbeat dad. He's a terrifying presence, determined to make the family as unhappy as he feels. For the children, it's a manic existence, alternating between the excitement of their mother's winnings and the fear of their father's drunken outbursts.

After an early episode in which he attacks the kitchen freezer with a frying pan, you brace yourself for the worst, but Evelyn always has a way of making things right. The scene in which she wins a 10-minute shopping spree in her local grocery store is a delirious high point, one of many in a movie that risks treacle in the name of celebrating an entire generation of unsung mothers.

[as featured in The Miami Herald]