When a Man Loves a Woman

Alice Green is a high school guidance counselor and mother of two who appears to have a settled, comfortable life with her husband Michael, an airline pilot. Behind that surface, she cannot get through social situations or daily life without drinking, and her dependence reaches the point where it endangers both her own health and the safety of the couple's daughters. When Michael finally confronts what is happening, he pushes her toward treatment, and Alice enters detox. Her return home sober does not restore the marriage; husband and wife must each reckon with the damage her drinking caused and with Michael's own role in allowing it to continue.

Luis Mandoki directed the film, the third in the run of features he made in the early 1990s, following White Palace and Born Yesterday, and it was written by Ronald Bass and Al Franken. Meg Ryan plays Alice opposite Andy García as Michael, with Ellen Burstyn, Tina Majorino, Mae Whitman and Lauren Tom among the supporting cast.

Released in April 1994 through Touchstone Pictures, the drama runs 126 minutes and took in about 50 million dollars worldwide. Its three scores sit in close agreement: 6.6 out of 10 from roughly 25,000 IMDb voters, the same figure from around 400 TMDB users, and 6.6 from 98 critics' reviews, so critics and audiences received it in much the same way.