The acting was great but the problem for me was:
nobody wins so many prizes
nobody stays with that husband after all that happened?
nobody lives so well with no money and so many children...
OK movie... not very entertaining though...
just wanted to address a couple of your items
point 1. nobody wins so many prizes.
As a serious contester, I have won many prizes over the years. What Evelyn won doesn't surprise me in the least. Most people think it boils down to luck, but it's actually a lot of work.
point 2. being a child of the 50's, I saw different of my mother's friends put up with a lot of different types of abuse. It was very much swept under the carpet back then, especially if you were fairly religious, as Evelyn was.
Think you really need to read the book, as the time constraints of a movie doesn't do the story justice.
Cathy from Canada :O)
Dear Cathy -- I, too, am a child of the 50's, saw the various abuses (especially housewives)that women suffered silently back then. I also rememeber many large, Irish families, where to make ends meet was a constant stuggle. You never questioned your husband, you put up and shut up. Men drank, women tended the children. One salary was never enough, though. (Thank God woman were liberated! If Evelyn Ryan were here today, she would be a successful Madison Ave. copywriter or editorial director. She was "of her time", and accepted her role within the constraints women faced in the fifties, yet she used her talents to support her family despite formidable obvious obstacles.
[email protected]
Um - this was a true story. If it was fiction, those might be valid complaints, but this was written by the real Terry Ryan.
shareIt was BASED on a true story! Just because something is based on a true story doesn't make everything in it real, just like movies will change from fiction works so to do they change from non-fiction works.
shareQUOTE: The acting was great but the problem for me was:
nobody wins so many prizes
nobody stays with that husband after all that happened?
nobody lives so well with no money and so many children...
OK movie... not very entertaining though...
Sorry, but I'm in agreement with Cathy on this one!
1. "The acting was great": True!
2. "nobody wins so many prizes":
Yes, people do win that many prizes... I am one such person - along with many others I know!
3. "nobody stays with that husband after all that happened?":
People DO stay with their husbands in difficult circumstances. Especially people like Evelyn, who never put themselves first and always considered all the options and consequences before acting. That was why she was such a great mother. She kept her home as harmonious as she could and made it a safe sanctuary for them all - and that included her troubled spouse.
4. "nobody lives so well with no money and so many children"
They lived well, in between the bad times (were we watching the same movie?) and as such, appreciated the good times far more than those who have never known poverty. Again, it was Evelyn who made impossible things possible. That was the whole point of the story. I don't think eating 'bug soup' was living particularly well!
5. "OK movie... not very entertaining though"
I disagree. Obviously you are entitled to your own opinion about the movie, but you are almost certainly in the minority here. ;-)
http://www.britabevis.co.uk
Totally agree.... This is a great movie!!!
sharegkatz wrote:
The acting was great but the problem for me was:
"nobody wins so many prizes"
You're wrong. Evelyn Ryan DID win all those prizes and many more, according to the book, not even mentioned in the film. Contesting was big in those days and a great many people got very good at it and won big prizes often
Evidently, you missed this in the movie, but in those days, contests were different than now. In those days, contestants could win through skill..coming up w/ jingles or slogans or winning names. At some point, those kinds of contests went out of fashion and there are almost none today. Nowadays, almost all contests are based on chance...random drawings. Terry Ryan said in her book that her mother entered several contests also that were random drawings and had nothing to do with coming up with a catchy phrase or song or jingle, etc. And she never won a single one that was based purely on chance.
"nobody stays with that husband after all that happened?"
Oh that's absurd. Millions of women stay in abusive marriages...many that are far more abusive...where they are being knocked around and the husband is running around on them and not supporting them. What would give you the idea that there wouldn't be any women who stay in abusive relationships? I find it so strange a comment because I would think it's a well-known fact this kind of thing goes on.
"nobody lives so well with no money and so many children..."
Live well? They didn't live well at all! They lived in a tiny blue collar town in the middle of nowhere w/ probably very low property values and the only reason they owned a home is because Evelyn won the money for DP and her husband made just enough to pay the mortgage. You could see there were times they had very little to eat. In the book it explains that the only reason they didn't starve is probably because Kelly's sister, who was married but had no children, came by every week to take Evelyn grocery shopping and she paid for the groceries. You saw how sometimes she couldn't pay the milkman and had to put up with his abusive comments. There's a lot more in the book about how broken down all the furniture and beat up old appliances were. Some of the appliances worked only because Evelyn was clever enough to find ways to rig them up so they could operate. And even then sometimes they broke down beyond her ability to rig them up again and they had neither money for repair or for replacement.
I don't know where you get "living well". That did not look like good living to me.
"OK movie... not very entertaining though..."
Well, not to you obviously, but then, I get the feeling you really missed important points of it.
WOAH! at of all people to know if this was a true story...it would be me...this may come to a surprise to you...but im related to evelyn...my great grandmother....my aunt was named after kelly....anyways...this is a true story...the prizes the happiness the commitment to her stubborn husband...and kendog...just because it is "based" doesnt mean none of that did happened..in case my family history is just a lie...then you can be right....and i found it a wonderful movie!
shareHi Alyssa,
seeing that you are one of the Ryan clan, was wondering if you could let us know how Terry's health has been lately, has she been doing any better???
If you are talking to her, please let her know that her fans are still thinking about her, especially Cathy from Canada :O)
im so sorry..weve heard about it, but not alot...we live kinda far away...we ryans tend to spread out..i llook into it tho!
shareI just want to add my twocents that yes, people do win lots of prizes like that and as someone else stated, its a lot of work to do so.. but I am one of those people who wins alot too!
Evelyn did win all of those prizes in real life, and if it weren't for her ingenuity, her family would not have had their home. She used her prizes to pay the bills, and sold her vacations and automobiles to pay them too. After everything was paid, she didn't have much left and it was back to business again.
Mommy to two little monsters
As a child of the 50s (and from Ohio!) I found the movie very believable. Many reasons for women to stay with abusive and alcoholic husbands - the Catholic church seemed to be the major one. It was very rare to see divorced families then and, who had the money for such a thing?
The Catholic religion kept people in fear and submission. I won't forget the look on Evelyn's face when the priest said 'well, try harder!'
My family also lived with feast and famine times, alcoholic and abusive men. The women are who kept the families together no matter what and left us kids to sort out our dysfunction as adults :)
It was a great movie, I've seen it twice -