Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

noelani54 This film isn't about anything of Earth-shattering importance, except to the real-life family whose story it tells. In it are many fine examples of how a wonderful woman, and loving, long-suffering, wife and mother, made things happen for her family, raising 10 happy and successful children, in spite of serious trials. Not only that, but she manages to keep smiling and looking at the bright side, through all but the most difficult. It's acted very well, although I will say that I found Woody Harrelson, as the father, in a red wig, pulled it down, in a few spots. I don't think the problem was his performance, I just don't think he was especially suited to the role.Overall, this film is VERY well worth the time to watch it!

Paul Creeden I am sure this film was very popular with a certain segment of the U.S. population during the post-911 Bush Era. I am also sympathetic to the children of the protagonist who felt the need to participate in a testimonial to their mother. I certainly mean no disrespect for Evelyn Ryan's personal legacy. Julianne Moore did the job well. However, I have known many children of Evelyn and Kelly Ryans who are of my generation. They live with the open wounds of this kind of family upbringing even in their 60's and 70's. While some of these women may have found happiness and some form of peace with their choices, it is a massive leap to exonerate them for making those choices for their children. It is also a massive leap to ignore the disservice they did to the role of women in American society. The glossing over of Kelly's nasty alcoholism is rather unforgivable. He was obviously a violent drunk. While it was not portrayed through the Vaseline lens of this movie, I would wager that child abuse and wife beating were part of the story. I feel this qualifies this film as propaganda for alcoholic denial and the denial of domestic abuse in favor of religiosity and enabling. This is the basis for my low rating.

blanche-2 The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, is based on the true story of Evelyn Ryan, a mother of ten in Defiance, Ohio, who supported her family of 12 by writing winning jingles for contests.Julianne Moore is Evelyn, a unflappable mother who somehow keeps her cool raising her ten children and dealing with a drunken husband "Kelly" (Woody Harrelson), a machinist who spends all his money on booze. Her pastor advises her to make a better home for him. Thanks, father. Sober, Kelly is a sweet enough man, if ineffectual. Drunk he resents that it is she who supplies what money and food they have and has put a roof over their heads and he becomes violent - not towards her or the children, but by breaking and throwing things. This scares the kids. Once, a near tragedy is avoided when, during one of his tirades, Evelyn falls and the milk bottles break. One more inch and that would have been it for her.When she wins $5,000 (she had multiple entries using her kids' names, a common practice - one entry per name), she and her husband (Woody Harrelson) purchase a house, but only he signs the mortgage.Very much, the point made in this film is that things were different for women in the '50s. Evelyn was a clever woman who had a bright future as a newspaperwoman, but she gave it all up for marriage and family. On TV, we see Queen for a Day and Miss America saying she wouldn't vote for a female president because women are "too emotional." The acting is good all around, with Moore the perfect '50s housewife - maybe too perfect - how any woman could hold it together given her life is beyond me. Only a few times do we see her break down and be anything but calm and cheerful. Harrelson is excellent as a weak man who, despite his unhappiness, can't get his act together to give her enough money for the milkman.Supposedly the film is very close to the book, written by one of the daughters. The vintage elements are wonderful; one really feels as if it is the '50s, with the typewriter, the black and white TV, the old cars, the clothes (some of which belonged to the real Evelyn Ryan).Very good.

MBunge This film is sweet but ultimately not all that interesting. That's partly due to the way it is told and partly due to an extremely simplistic portrayal of the main character. When the most engaging person on screen is a supporting character the audience isn't even supposed to like, that's generally a sign of a movie that doesn't quite get it right.Based on a memoir by one of her daughters, The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio tells the story of Evelyn Ryan (Julianne Moore). She's a 1950s housewife in the aforementioned small town with ten kids and bitter, boozy husband (Woody Harrelson). The entire film is basically about how Evelyn's family struggles with money and with her husband's irresponsibility and simmering anger and resentment, problems Evelyn deals with by entering and winning an astonishing number of writing and jingle contests.You see, Evelyn was a "contestor", one of many people around the country who entered the advertising contests companies ran throughout the 50s and into the 60s. It was both the outlet for the writing career Evelyn gave up when she married a lesser man and a way to paper over all of the family's money concerns, which would exacerbated by her husband drinking away much of his paycheck.A pleasant and mostly well-meaning tale, the movie is never able to really click. As hard as it tries, it never grows on you or makes you genuinely care about what happens to Evelyn and her family. I think there are 3 reasons for that.1. The storytelling, especially at the beginning of the film, keeps you to much at a distance. It plops you down into Evelyn's life after she's already got her full family in place and has been entering contests for a long while. Then it tries to fill you in on all the back story by having Evelyn tell you herself, but not just through voice-over narration. It has Evelyn look directly into the camera and talk to the audience. Sometimes she does that in the middle of the screen. Sometimes there will be two Evelyn's on screen. One to act normally and the other to address the viewer. It's a technique that pulls you out of the story because it's too clever for this material, like telling a knock knock joke in Latin.2. Evelyn Ryan is a woman of relentless positivity who greets every challenge and setback in life with the same refusal to get angry or dwell on any unfairness. That might make you a great and happy person in real life. It does not make you interesting to watch. There's nothing to grab on and relate to with her, unlike her husband. It's kind of fun to see Woody Harrelson try and convey his character's stew of basic decency, frustration and wounded pride. He's a man who lost his chance to be a singer after a throat injury and took a job he doesn't like to support his family, only to be shown up by his more talented wife. Watching someone grapple with unhappiness if far more involving than watching someone who refuses to be unhappy. Evelyn is simply too opaque a human being to be the center of this sort of story.3. Even though Evelyn proclaims "I'm not a saint!" in the film, that's how she's presented. But if you pay attention to the relationship between Evelyn and her husband, as seen by her author daughter, there could have been a much more interesting take on her. While her husband is angry and yelling and acting out, Evelyn essentially just ignores his behavior. She doesn't interact with him like they're both adults, but like he's an overgrown and troublesome son she can't deal with any more. Evelyn lets him stew in his own juices while she goes about her own business, abandoning him to become greatly resented by their children. Though her daughter could apparently never acknowledge it, there are the outlines of a much more complex Evelyn Miller. Less a saint and more a woman who participates in her own martyrdom.The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio has some appeal as a glance into a substratum of mid-20th century Americana, but it never manages to work on the emotional level needed for this sort of family-friendly film.