FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

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.

gholste I expected an uplifting, nostalgic celebration of life in the 1950s, depicting an all-American family pulling together to surmount the obstacles and difficulties of life. Instead, I found myself enduring a grim and depressing story of a courageous woman married to a foul-mouthed, bitter drunk who never let go of his own disappointment with life long enough to rejoice in or appreciate the contributions of his wife in her heroic efforts to help provide for their family. The movie makers seem to have been bent upon tearing down the American family, and I don't enjoy movies that do that. If you want nostalgia, watch October Sky or It's a Wonderful Life, not this joyless, gloomy slog.

dmills9 I was completely blown away by this movie. As far as I was concerned it was unappealing. It had an uninteresting cover and I'd never heard of it, but I decided to give it a shot and I am so glad I did!! The acting was very convincing and the story line was completely unexpected (considering that all I was going on was the title). This mother of 10 and wife was an unexpected hero and I am so glad that, not only was her story told, but that I was able to view this moving film. I have recommended this film to countless friends and now I am recommending it to you, especially to women. Watch the film and be inspired to be a better woman!

PresidentForLife Here we have a movie about a bright and creative woman who for some reason chooses to make a life with a man who can only be described as a stupid drunk. They then compound the problem by having a huge number of children they can't afford to feed, and home life is very precarious. We learn nothing of the woman's own background that would help us understand why she made such poor choices for her life. The feel-good ending implies that her children turned out happy and successful, but what a lot they were put through to get there! This is a maudlin movie that is more pathetic than inspirational, because the heroine doesn't overcome adversity so much as bring it upon herself. I assume the book must have been better.