When a Man Loves a Woman | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Luis Mandoki |
Produced by | Jon Avnet |
Written by |
Ronald Bass Al Franken |
Starring | |
Music by | Zbigniew Preisner |
Cinematography | Lajos Koltai |
Production
company |
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Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures |
Release date
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Running time
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126 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $50.0 million |
When a Man Loves a Woman is a 1994 American romantic drama film written by Al Franken and Ronald Bass, starring Andy García, Meg Ryan, Tina Majorino, Mae Whitman, Ellen Burstyn, Lauren Tom and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
For her performance as an alcoholic mother, Ryan received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Best Female Actor in a Leading Role. The movie's title is taken from the song of the same name by Percy Sledge.
The movie chronicles one woman's (Meg Ryan) alcoholism and her husband's (Andy García) efforts to help her.
Meg Ryan plays Alice Green, a school counselor who has a serious drinking problem and is married to Michael (Andy García), an airline pilot. Though she's lighthearted and loving, Alice is often reckless and, when drunk, even neglects her children: nine-year-old daughter Jess (Tina Majorino) from a previous marriage, and four-year-old daughter Casey (Mae Whitman), whose father is Michael.
One afternoon, Alice enters their home in a drunken incoherent state. She dismisses the reluctant caretaker, who leaves her alone with her children. Still drinking, Alice is confronted by her eldest daughter concerned for her mother's welfare. In return, she violently slaps Jess, who runs to her room crying. Alice enters the shower. Unable to control her balance and calling for Jess, she falls to the side and smashes through the shower door onto the bathroom floor. Fearing her mother has died, Jess contacts Michael who immediately flies home to be by his wife's side.