This screen adaptation never quite jells, veering from family drama to stale 50s consumer kitsch.

| Jun 28, 2022

It's a charming book and the movie is also good led by Julianne Moore's good performance

| Aug 25, 2020

If you don't already know that Julianne Moore is one of our greatest living actors, this underseen film will prove it to you, as she takes a potential simp... and makes her dignified and inspiring.

| Jul 11, 2016

Defiance, Where? Female Compliance Behind and Before The Camera

| Feb 10, 2007

The script just dulls out.

| Original Score: C+ | Jan 29, 2007

This Prize Winner is a winner for its smart portrayal of a resourceful woman who loved her family, loved words, and loved life.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 27, 2006

Far worse films with far lesser credentials have been given much fairer shots.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 21, 2006

[Offers] an almost subversively idealistic subtext to a now-familiar ritual exposé of the American dream.

| Original Score: B+ | Apr 12, 2006

Moore delivers one of the best performances of 2005.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 13, 2006

... in another director's hands ... might have devolved into a truly terrifying Lifetime-style screed against the oppressiveness of the masculine ego

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Jan 2, 2006

It makes for a nice Mother's Day card. But not enough for a complete movie.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Nov 10, 2005

...assembles an uneven but fairly inspirational package, manipulative in spots but with its heart in the right place.

Full Review | Nov 9, 2005

What was wrong with it? Well, I can tell you in two words: Woody Harrelson.

| Nov 7, 2005

Just a run-of-the-mill homage to motherhood lifted from the ordinary only by Moore's natural radiance, and in the end that's not quite enough.

| Original Score: C+ | Nov 1, 2005

[W]hip[s] hardship into a nutrition-free froth of nostalgia and facile charm: it's The Wonder Years as produced by Good Housekeeping magazine.

| Oct 30, 2005

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 29, 2005

No, for all the film's charms and pleasant disposition this drama can't help but come across like a made-for-cable Lifetime channel movie of the week.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 29, 2005

Rarely do you have a movie in which both lead actors give Oscar-worthy performances, but Defiance, Ohio is one.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 20, 2005

But even as Prize Winner goes through these odd motions to set Evelyn's taxing context and her admirable survival, its most extraordinary moment turns surreal.

| Oct 14, 2005

For once, a true story gets no romanticizing or needless embellishment to become a captivating movie.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 14, 2005