The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio

Watch The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio Online Free

- 72/100 based on 7,972 votes
  • Released: 2005
  • Runtime: 99 mins
  • Director:
  • Studio: DreamWorks Pictures
  • Genres: Drama

Kelly and Evelyn Ryan live in Defiance, Ohio with their 10 children. At first glance their life seems idyllic; they call each other "Mother" and "Father" and seem to dote on the kids. But Kelly was a garage-band crooner whose voice was ruined in an auto accident. He's resigned to a dead-end factory job that barely pays the bills, and is given to fits of alcohol-induced rage. Evelyn, a stay-at-home wife and mother, deals with this abuse by appealing to her priest, who is no he... (Full plot summary below)

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Actors in The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio:

Julianne Moore
Woody Harrelson
Laura Dern
Trevor Morgan
Ellary Porterfield
Simon Reynolds

Full Plot Details

Kelly and Evelyn Ryan live in Defiance, Ohio with their 10 children. At first glance their life seems idyllic; they call each other "Mother" and "Father" and seem to dote on the kids. But Kelly was a garage-band crooner whose voice was ruined in an auto accident. He's resigned to a dead-end factory job that barely pays the bills, and is given to fits of alcohol-induced rage. Evelyn, a stay-at-home wife and mother, deals with this abuse by appealing to her priest, who is no help at all. She deals with their poverty by entering the jingle contests that were the rage in the 50's and early 60's, even sending in multiple entries in the names of the children. She is very clever at it, winning more than her share of prizes, but her successes aren't enough to keep the wolf from the door. Further, they trigger Kelly's insecurities and he retreats deeper into the bottle, using food and mortgage money to support the habit. Can the loving, optimistic Evelyn hold the family together? Is she justified in placing her faith in the deeply-flawed Kelly? How will the children turn out? This underrated film provides an inspirational answer to these questions.

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Movie Reviews

Dallas Morning News - 9/10 by Philip WuntchA mixed bag of goods. A bag of goods, it definitely is, but without a consistent point of view.
Chicago Sun-Times - 9/10 by Roger EbertAvoids obvious sentiment and predictable emotion and shows this woman somehow holding it together year after year, entering goofy contests that for her family mean life and death.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel - 9/10 by Phoebe FlowersA genuinely touching story about how a woman can use her intelligence to overcome tough situations. Take your mom, or your daughter.
Movie Mom - 9/10 by Nell MinowMoore's radiant performance does for this movie what the real-life Ryan's "contest-ing" did for her family in the 1950's -- it holds it together with mesmerizing grace.
Boston Globe - 9/10 by Wesley MorrisAnderson is the rare filmmaker who doesn't want to use the actress as an instrument or to exploit her independent-movie cachet. She has freed Moore to be what she hasn't been with many directors: credibly human.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette - 9/10 by Philip Martin... in another director's hands ... might have devolved into a truly terrifying Lifetime-style screed against the oppressiveness of the masculine ego
Miami Herald - 8/10 by Peter DebrugeWith its predictable confrontations and tacky fantasy sequences, you feel writer/director Jane Anderson steering the material toward schmaltzy movie-of-the-week territory at every turn.
Premiere - 8/10 by Sara BradyOverall, a modest but lovely achievement for Anderson, Moore, and Harrelson, and a family entertainment in the best senses of the words.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer - 8/10 by William ArnoldThe movie constantly verges on being a parody, but Moore's performance stays miraculously away from caricature.
Rolling Stone - 8/10 by Peter TraversIt's tough to imagine a guy who won't squirm through this tale of 1950s housewife Evelyn Ryan.

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