ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

SincereFinest disgusting, overrated, pointless

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

prexactly This was entertaining, but I think they went overboard with making the father a complete jerk, even though he was the only one with an actual dependable job supporting the whole family! The kids seem to hate him and the wife appears to feel stuck with him, yet their whole existence as a family unit (as dysfunctional as it may be) is a result of his efforts. Sure the wife contributed as a homemaker and prize winner, which is great, but I doubt they would have made it far on her winnings alone. I'm sure any father that worked his whole life to support a family would love to be remembered this way.

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.

Tss5078 After seeing this film, I knew it had to be a true story, and sure enough it was. The story of The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio is a terrific one, that you just couldn't make up. The book was written by one of a families ten children, about their mother and how she raised their entire family by winning sweepstakes, which were extremely popular in the 50's and 60's. The Ryan family was your typical suburban family, Kelly (Woody Harrelson) worked in a mill and spends most of his paycheck on alcohol. That leaves Evelyn (Julianna Moore) to raise 10 kids on almost no money. Evelyn was in advertising before she became a housewife and had a knack for writing slogans and jingles. As a result of her circumstances, she entered every contest she could find and surprisingly won a large number of them, despite the odds. She won the house they live in, as well as most of the appliances, and even a few cars they sold. The story was truly fantastic and a wonderful tribute to a woman, who in some ways could be considered a modern day working mother. Evelyn was played by Julianna Moore, who gives the performance of her life. Once again, an independent film is overlooked by the Academy, but had this been a major release, there is no doubt in my mind that Moore would have won the Oscar, she is really that good. A good portion of the story is focused on this extraordinary woman, but we do meet her husband and we see her kids at various ages and walks of live. It seems like a movie that could quickly fizzle out, but life is never slow or boring in the Kelly household. On a side note, the author of the book, Evelyn's oldest daughter really made a name for herself with this book and made a cameo at the end of the film. Unfortunately, her career was short lived, as she passed away shortly after the films release. The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio is the kind of tribute we'd all love to give our parents, but most of our parents didn't do the extraordinary things Evelyn Ryan did. It's a heartwarming story that shows no matter how bad things get, there is always a way, and that's a message we can all relate to.

Milbourne Whitt This movie has been played close to 100 times in the last 5 months on TV, but in was on the high end channels' 370 to 380 digital. Later it had gotten down to lower channel 149 to 171. These are commercial free and I'm glad I taped it as a favorite family movie. I hope this movie is someday shown on the regular 2 digit channels so more people can see it, like they did with "October Sky". In the movie, the dress code seemed right for the time period. Of course, after seeing the movie I had to go to the internet to dig up everything a could on the Ryan family. Just a few minutes ago, I found the Terry (the writer) had died of cancer a couple of months ago. It was great that the book came out and was made into movie. Of course, Terry herself, showing that old typewriter, was in it at the end as well as all the Ryan children. It was a good ending to a good movie.