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'The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio' comes in second to its star

Set at its start in the kitschy, colorful, jingle-obsessed 1950s, "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio" gets two things absolutely right.

First it's the look — the perfect pink-and-white polka-dot housedresses, the gadgets, the aprons, the white-enameled appliances, the crazy-cow salt and pepper shakers.

DreamWorks SKG 'The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio' C+ The verdict: Julianne Moore is a winner, but her film really deserves only honorable mention. Director: Jane Anderson Starring: Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, Laura Dern, Ellary Porterfield, Frank Chiesurin Run time: 99 minutes Release date: Sept. 30, 2005 Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements, some disturbing images and language. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime [an error occurred while processing this directive]

Then there's one of the surest things in movies — Julianne Moore. She plays real-life Evelyn Ryan, mother of 10 sometimes enterprising kids and wife of one sometimes sorry drunk. She also kept her family financially afloat for years by winning contests in which she'd write advertising slogans in 25 words or less.

How many times have we seen Moore master the 1950-ish desperate housewife? Well, more than we want to count, for sure, but there was the trapped and vulnerable Cathy Whitaker in "Far From Heaven" and the trapped and vulnerable Laura Brown in "The Hours" (both films from 2002).

They were interesting, kinetic, surprising women.

Moore's Ryan is all those things, too. But her film lets her down. Ryan is one of those "smiling-through" housewives. She perseveres pleasantly enough when "Dad" (Woody Harrelson) uses a skillet to drunkenly attack the top of her latest contest prize Ñ a meat freezer. (He was upset and feeling angry because he couldn't afford the freezer himself.) Or when he tosses into the back yard a bunch of the frozen steaks and expensive meats she won in a grocery store contest. (He was upset and feeling angry because he could afford only hamburger himself).

In "Defiance," that's our movie. And it plays out over and over again.

What made "Far From Heaven" and "The Hours" work so well were those moments in which Moore revealed those women's inner souls. Their seams came apart, their lives laid bare.

"Defiance" digs a little into Ryan's essence, but director Jane Anderson (she wrote for TV's "The Facts of Life" and wrote and directed the TV tennis movie "When Billie Beat Bobby") keeps to the straight and narrow of the woman who held everything together no matter what.

It makes for a nice Mother's Day card. But not enough for a complete movie.