Great Film overall

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

When a Man Loves a Woman (1994) ** (out of 4)Michael and Alice Green (Andy Garcia, Meg Ryan) have what appears to be the perfect marriage. They have a great house, great jobs and they have everything that anyone could ever want. From the outside everything seems to be perfect but inside the walls they are dealing with the fact that Alice is an alcoholic.WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN is a well-meaning drama that had a huge impact on my life because it taught me what the term "Oscar bait" was. In case you don't know, Oscar bait is pretty much a movie that is made that hopes desperately to pick up Oscar attention for either a star or a filmmaker. In this case, it was Meg Ryan who tried to change her clean image and show that should could play a challenging role.It paid off because she did get an Oscar-nomination and rightfully so as her performance here is certainly a great one. However, the problem is that the movie is just rather routine and it never really rises above something you'd see on Lifetime. The problem is certainly the screenplay, which appears to follow a textbook on other films that deal with this subject. You've got the great life. You've got the ugly truth. You've got very ugly moments. You've got the destruction. You then have the redemption.The problem with WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN is that everything happens just as you'd expect it to and there really wasn't any shocks or real drama. Yes, it's heartbreaking to see what the characters are going through but there's just not too much of an emotional pull. Garcia was extremely good in the role of the husband who is trying to keep everything from crumbling down. As I said, Ryan is extremely good and proves that she could do a more challenging role.

Sorry.., I couldn't get past the first scene. "Would you like to do my laundry?" Hello? Meg Ryan should have destroyed him with an affirmative retort. Instead, she fell for this dope. This is the third Meg Ryan movie where she falls in love with an idiot, the other two being When Harry Met Sally and You've Got Mail. Honestly.., that scene with her in the bar meeting that pompous "airline pilot" really made me nauseated. What should have been her reply when he asked her to "Go get his laundry"? Any of these would have worked: "Oh, you fly an airliner? What an exalted way to sit on your ass for a living!" "I have absolutely nothing to do for the rest of the day. My schedule is totally empty. I don't have to go back to work after lunch,and I don't even have to eat dinner. I'd be glad to be your delivery whore." "Carrot cake? Did you say carrot cake? What do you say I smash this guy's beer glass against your head?"

I really hated this film. I quite liked the beginning when Meg Ryan descended from bubbly to downright alcoholic but then the rest of the film was just completely lost on me. First and foremost, I find it a failure in the script that the story focused entirely on the relationship between the two grown ups and neglected the children. Personally, I think this would have been the more interesting story. But secondly, I just didn't get what Garcia's character was supposed to have done wrong. I honestly didn't although I was prepared to. So he may have been a macho but I saw him as being portrayed as supportive and a victim of her alcoholism just as the rest of the family. Why he should be partly responsible for it is beyond me as it was never properly explained.

Great film about addiction! Not just romance, but how to help someone in need. Everyone needs to see this film again and again.The acting was amazing and the locations.You finish this movie wondering, and hopeful. The human spirit has such capacity for love and compassion, and our modern society such drive to deny and eliminate it. Wonderfully crafted performances by Meg and Andy. Good writing and direction. There are moments that echo right into our own lives, and humour that makes you smile with your soul. I wish all Hollywood films could be like this.What I also loved was the lack of profanity.