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When a Man Loves a Woman (1994)
Rate:
2
Viewed:
5/24
5/24:
I only took interest in When a Man Loves a Woman for Andy Garcia's sake in spite of Meg Ryan because I hate her plus
she can't act worth a damn.
Five minutes into it, I knew I was in for a long haul by sensing an obvious ploy for Meg Ryan to win an Oscar by turning
herself into The Long Weekend sob story. Souring my mood, too, is when I noticed
in the opening credits that the screenplay was co-written by the notorious sex offender Al Franken.
The trouble with the film is it's manipulative to the nth degree. Alice has the perfect life as she's married to a handsome
pilot husband with two daughters while owning a house in San Francisco, but she's an alcoholic. Talk about rich white people's
problems. The apparent remedy for her is to stop drinking and perhaps seek professional treatment. Afterwards is when
everything began to get worse...much worse.
Alice says her husband is the problem. He doesn't believe her, and neither do I. Staring at Michael like he's an idiot, she
says stuff like, "What you are doing is not hearing me out...what you have to do is hear me out." He doesn't understand, and
I don't, either. So, she decides to hang out with her fake friend and be cool by smoking like a chimney. The husband starts
to think maybe he's the problem after all and is willing to enter therapy. Yet I fail to see what's wrong with him.
Eventually, Michael admits he, not Alice, is the problem. Oh, okay...it's been him the entire time who's the cause of his
wife's drinking, and she gets to take the kids as a result.
Now, here's my issue which is simply this: WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT? What we have here is a weak husband who got
brainwashed and therefore emasculated in spirit. Michael should've filed for divorce on the spot. He'll find somebody else,
and it's Andy Garcia, for Pete's sake! Alice just can't appreciate what she has because she's nothing but trailer park
white trash. I think Michael only held on to her longer because of sex.
Two things I wondered the whole time are: (1) Had this been going on for a while?; and (2) Was she from the
gutter or one of them college sorority bitches before Michael came along and rescued her? If the first question is in the
negative, then I find it hard to believe that the drinking issue suddenly appeared. As for the second, who knows? But it's
curious to see Alice's normal-looking parents showing up to babysit the two daughters and then disappearing for good
afterwards when it would've made sense to have them for support or perhaps explain a bit the family history and whatever.
Anyway, it's not Andy Garcia's finest hour. I hope he only did the film to cash in by riding on the coattails of Meg
Ryan's popularity because he was never a bankable actor to begin with. On the other hand, Meg Ryan is terrible and can't
make herself believable for the slightest bit, hence the all-around fake emotion. The two female child stars are annoying
while there's a decided amount of racism going on, especially the way the Asian female babysitter was treated as if she's
supposed to be responsible for cleaning up the white family's mess and more. By the way, airline pilots don't wear their
uniform in public unless it's walking to and from the airport and while flying; otherwise, it's a fireable offense.
All in all, When a Man Loves a Woman is the drivel female version of
The Long Weekend.