The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
DreamWorks SKG | Release Date: September 30, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
11
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Avoids 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. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Anderson 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. Read full review
80
VarietyRobert Koehler
Even more than in "Far From Heaven," Moore's housebound wife is a study in pent-up brilliance, with extraordinary devotion to her family. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
An engaging film bolstered by the stellar performance of Julianne Moore. Read full review
75
PremiereSara Brady
Overall, a modest but lovely achievement for Anderson, Moore, and Harrelson, and a family entertainment in the best senses of the words. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineAngel Cohn
Moore and Harrelson are very well cast. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
A heartwarming, inspirational tale. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldPeter Debruge
With 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. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
The movie constantly verges on being a parody, but Moore's performance stays miraculously away from caricature. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Startlingly original film. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterSheri Linden
A spirited comic drama, toplined by Moore's lovely performance. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Gently, affectionately and with wit, this lovely movie gives the 1950's its due, but not for a moment does it go overboard and make you want to go back there. Read full review
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Even though Prize Winner ultimately asks us to swallow that golfball-size happy pill, Anderson and her not-so-secret weapon Moore are actually clawing their way toward something deeper and far more complex than a cheerful, embroidered slogan. Read full review
70
SlateDavid Edelstein
An honest tear-jerker. Read full review
70
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
It has its own subversive power, as it elevates one family's struggle for working-class survival and valorizes a woman of simple faith and inner strength. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The actress' [Julianne Moore's] goodwill, alone, holds this schizophrenic story together - if just barely. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger Moore
Moore makes this caricature of 1950s motherhood a down-to-Earth delight. Read full review
58
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
Anderson sees her subject as little more than a game-show contestant. One suspects the real Evelyn Ryan deserved far better. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMelissa Anderson
Shameless Eisenhower-era corn. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Moore's scenes with a miscast-but-game Harrelson offer a study in how spouses learn to handle even their partners' most destructive impulses, but in most other moments, Anderson fails to get beyond the surface of her characters' lives. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
No one expects documentary realism in these memoir-to-movie transfers. It's reasonable, however, to expect more vibrant and expressive fictionalized treatment than this. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
This screen adaptation never quite jells, veering from family drama to stale 50s consumer kitsch, but it's anchored by strong performances from Julianne Moore. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
It's tough to imagine a guy who won't squirm through this tale of 1950s housewife Evelyn Ryan. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Only an actor of Moore's calibre could begin to add a bit of credible flesh to these hallowed bones. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Anderson's adaptation is heavy on production numbers in which jingles come to life and light on conveying any real feelings of Eisenhower-era darkness the prizewinner herself might have felt during her decades of marriage to an abusive, drunken man. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyTim Grierson
There's something terminally small about this big-screen melodrama, with its trite characterizations of fighting parents, empty pockets and kind hearts. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
But it's one thing to write a loving ode to your mother; another to direct an ode to an ode. Read full review
40
Dallas ObserverMelissa Levine
The film congeals from dripping sentimentality into emulsified schmaltz when it brings in the actual Ryan family, all 10 children (now in their fifties and sixties), for a final scene. The intentions are clearly honorable, and we certainly wish these people well, but this isn't a memorial service, it's a movie. Read full review
38
New York PostLou Lumenick
This maudlin, fact-inspired and anti-feminist dramedy is no "Far From Heaven" or "The Hours." Read full review
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