There are a few good things to be said about When a Man Loves a Woman. Now that the movie is released, we don't have to watch the lousy preview trailer anymore (it's been playing since last September). It's also nice to see Andy Garcia play something other than a street-wise ethnic type. Instead, he gets to play a upper-middle-class anal retentive type.
But good performances by Garcia and Meg Ryan are When a Man Loves a Woman's only real merits. This rehab drama about an alcoholic mother lacks the hard grittiness of The Lost Weekend and the emotional resonance of The Days of Wine and Roses. You don't even see much drinking, despite the fact that Ryan's supposed to be on a protracted binge. She simply shows up drunk. It must be magic.
Which is indicative of what's wrong with this movie. It refuses to delve into any of the reasons why Ryan drinks, or why Garcia's such a model of co-dependency. It also refuses to unload on Garcia's character, even though he plays a husband who's clearly a controlling jerk. Everything in When a Man Loves a Woman is cookie-cutter clean – which does a disservice to families that are dealing with the hard realities of alcoholism and recovery. But mostly, it's just a drag.
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