Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 14, 1994                   TAG: 9405180056
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

`WHEN A MAN' IS A LOVE STORY OVERDONE

But early on in the new Meg Ryan-Andy Garcia movie "When A Man Loves A Woman," it becomes clear why it isn't called, "When A Woman Loves A Bottle." Apparently, Hollywood doesn't think the moviegoing public would like a movie that takes a straight-on, gloves-off look at alcoholism.

So they turn this alcoholic tale into an alcoholic love story and hope that will make the film more entertaining. The result is a somewhat detached, unoriginal look at alcoholism, through a romantic haze.

But it has its strong points, chief among them Ryan and Garcia, who convincingly play in-love married couple Alice and Michael Green. She's a school guidance counselor, he's an airline pilot, and they live with their two incredibly adorable and precocious daughters in a great house in San Francisco.

After about 20 minutes of Hallmark-card exposition, it is entirely clear that Alice and Michael are hot for each other and that they've got everything to lose. Then Alice's drinking causes Michael to miss a trip, and the unraveling begins. Michael suggests a Mexican getaway, during which Alice nearly drowns. They have a little talk about Alice's drinking (embracing and spinning a la "Thomas Crown Affair") but when they get home, she's up to her old tricks. And worse.

It all seems rather perfunctory. There's the hidden bottles, the domineering mother (Ellen Burstyn) whose expectations Alice could never quite meet and the alcoholic father. And Alice's children are already showing signs of having to grow up too fast; Tina Majorino, who plays Jessica, is unnervingly adult in expression and seems to be 9 going on 40.

Alice ends up at a very nice rehab center where, the director tells a crestfallen Michael, Alice will not be allowed to make phone calls for a while: "She will be very busy getting well."

What? You mean this isn't going to be any fun?

Yes, things do get worse before they get better. The writers (Ron Bass of "Rain Man" and Al Franken) tried to cover the bases and offer a somewhat realistic look at the destruction alcohol can do. But it all ends up looking a little squeaky clean. The direction by Luis Mandoki ("Born Yesterday" and "White Palace") is about on a par with a good made-for-television movie.

So even when Michael and Alice are really having it out - in one of the film's best scenes - you want to push the camera in closer, get us some grit. Garcia and Ryan seem a little straitjacketed by the writing, although they do succeed at times in making you care about their characters and that it all turn out OK in the end. Ryan does an extraordinary job with the five-minute speech she makes at the end of the film, when Alice marks six months of sobriety at an Alcoholic's Anonymous meeting.

But we are supposed to have learned from Michael's misguided efforts to help that when it comes to alcoholism, love really does not conquer all. So what's the point of the big, face-sucking kiss at the end?

The point is a happy ending, at any cost.

When a Man Loves a Woman ** 1/2

A Touchstone Pictures. Rated R for nudity and strong language; 2 hours and 5 minutes; Tanglewood Mall and Salem Valley 8.