Amarsi

This movie has me in tears throughout; it portrays the mixed

feelings, emotions and total confusion of an alcoholic wife and

mother so perfectly - and I should recognize them, as an alcoholic

of 10 years myself. Especially moving is the wonderful

performance of the elder child "Jessie" - an amazing achievement

in one so young. It certainly strengthened my resolve never to go

down that path again. I recommend it to all families of alcoholics

for an insight into our way of thinking - our shame, our inability to

control our own addiction, and the possibilty of real recovery.

Thank you, all involved.

When first renting this film, I expected to see a typical love story. I found, instead, a film that truly attempted to accurately display what happens in relationships where one member has a drinking problem. It is powerful and shows the true pain and confusing that often looms over these situations. Rather than sending Alex to detox and having her come home happy, she came home very confused about life and what she was doing. This is one of the many ways this film reflects true life. My only qualm is the ending. Rather than keeping true to the story, the filmmakers seemed to give up and ended it on a happy, superficial note. Despite this letdown, I love this film and everything it tries to communicate.

Meg Ryan's performance is one of the underrated of the decade. She should have received on Oscar nomination for it and was certainly better than Jessica Lange that year. I have read a few comments here saying she did a terrible job. I would ask these people to define what a good performance is to them. Not only did Ryan communicate every possible feeling that a woman in Alex's situation could have, she did it with style and ease. Not only that, but made a dramatic move with this film from her already great performances in romantic comedy. Ryan should be applauded for taking such a huge risk and having it pay off.

Andy Garcia also has a tremendous performance in this film. He too displays very complex emotions of a faulted man with skill.

The one aspect of this film that I love so much is how no character is faultless in the whole situation. All members have contributed to the problem, and all must face up to what they did and try to improve what they have. I don't know if this makes much sense (I feel my thoughts are jumbled). In one simple statement: SEE THIS MOVIE. THE TITLE DOES NOT ACCURATELY DISPLAY THE MOVIE IT TRULY IS. The title makes it sound like another sappy love story. What the viewer gets is a tremendous study of the damage alcoholism can bring to a family.

i saw this movie just yesterday but it really touched my heart and i really love but i agree with the opinion of one of the comments about the scene of the eggs it was useless and it didnt get to have any effect on the plot but andy garcia was perfect and u really liked the children too, about meg ryan she was as usual perfect, i advice everyone to see this movie because it will really touch ur hearts

I saw this movie the first week when it came out and absolutely fell in love with it. My parents were alcoholics and seeing what the little girls had to go through is what made me cry so hard. I could see many reflections of my sister and I in Meg Ryan's daughters. Both her and Andy Garcia's performances were outstanding. I would recommend this movie if you have personally dealt with alcholism, or if you have been the victim of someone's abuse, because it helped me come to terms with some issues that I had been struggling with.

Simply put, When A Man Loves A Woman is the best story about family in America since Ordinary People and Shoot The Moon. If that sounds a bit overblown -- too bad, because it's true. As a self professed fan of foreign films, this film manages to take an honest look at alcoholism and relationships rarely seen in American films. The actors inhabit a whole life here -- they feel like a real family with entire past lives. Every actor hits the right tone -- Meg Ryan is commanding, Andy Garcia simply takes his time, as does Tina Majorino, who gives a performance alongside Haley Joel Osment's in The Sixth Sense. Another rare take the script accomplishes (with Garcia's considerable help)is conveying Michael's emotional life and struggles with loving his wife in an expected - a layer also unseen in American films. This story asks uneasy questions and dosen't always profess to know the answers -- and sometimes, that's all we have.