[7]

Julianne Moore stars in this true story based on the life of Evelyn Ryan, a ’50s housewife and mother of ten who kept her family afloat by writing award-winning marketing jingles. Director Jane Anderson manages to keep the movie light and airy, which keeps in tone with Evelyn’s indomitable spirit, but without short shrifting the film’s more serious, underlying statements about gender roles.

Both Moore and co-star Woody Harrelson, who plays Evelyn’s alcoholic husband, give their characters tremendous depth. Moore makes you feel Evelyn’s pain when the bank informs her they don’t need her signature on a house loan, even though the house is being purchased with her earnings. And Harrelson makes you feel the insecurity and shame of his character, whose inability to provide for his family nearly erupts into violence at every turn. There’s a palpable tension in the air whenever Harrelson’s character is drunk, but he’s not an unsympathetic character. The screenplay, based on the memoir written by Evelyn’s real life daughter, Terry ‘Tuff’ Ryan, paints a compelling portrait of the destructive nature of rigid gender roles. How men and women survived the 1950s, I’ll never know.

With Laura Dern.