Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

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.

Enjoyed this one based on the outstanding performances from Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson. Based on a true story there are plenty of heart tugging moments throughout the years this takes place but honestly not much really happens.The film lacks any true drama or bad guys with the same events just playing out for the duration. The problems with the dad's alcoholism and the family losing the house continue for the entire movie, so that the final climax involves the family potentially losing the house again due to Kelly drinking his way through the second mortgage.Despite, I was still invested and this was a good movie. Julianne Moore is (as always) fantastic, she plays Evelyn Ryan here, a 1950's housewife with 10 kids and an alcoholic husband who keeps her family afloat by winning prize money in jingle and slogan writing contests which were all the rage at the time.Woody H also shines as Kelly, his character surprised me because he's not your typical (movie) alcoholic, not abusive per se but weak, jealous and taken to blackouts and crying jags as he's afraid Evelyn will leave him. Evelyn is super happy even in the face of all their struggles, a trapped housewife from of her time who can't drive, work or be in control of her own money as the bank manager gets her husband to sign her jingle winning checks. Frustrating. During the closing credits we get to see the real Ryan family members. 1/10/16.

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.

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.