Geoffrey DeLeons Sorry.., I couldn't get past the first scene. "Would you like to do my laundry?" Hello? Meg Ryan should have destroyed him with an affirmative retort. Instead, she fell for this dope. This is the third Meg Ryan movie where she falls in love with an idiot, the other two being When Harry Met Sally and You've Got Mail. Honestly.., that scene with her in the bar meeting that pompous "airline pilot" really made me nauseated. What should have been her reply when he asked her to "Go get his laundry"? Any of these would have worked: "Oh, you fly an airliner? What an exalted way to sit on your ass for a living!" "I have absolutely nothing to do for the rest of the day. My schedule is totally empty. I don't have to go back to work after lunch,and I don't even have to eat dinner. I'd be glad to be your delivery whore." "Carrot cake? Did you say carrot cake? What do you say I smash this guy's beer glass against your head?"

Amy Adler Michael Green (Andy Garcia) and his wife, Alice (Meg Ryan) are living the good life in San Francisco. They are both professionals, they live in a lovely home, and they have two beautiful daughters (Tina Majorino and Mae Whitman). But, they also have a secret. Alice is a "closet" alcoholic, who is on the verge of showing it to the world and Michael is doing his best to cover for her to everyone. Things are complicated, for Alice seems happier when she is in the "party mood" and Michael loves her so much that he actually appears to relish his role as the one Alice calls on to put herself back together. Yet, even a vacation to Mexico does not help Alice find the self-happiness she needs to lose the bottle. Also, Alice injures herself at home, scaring the girls beyond measure and they are suffering from neglect, too. Therefore, Alice has to enter a "Betty Ford" type clinic. But, will Michael and Alice both like and love each other when Alice is sober? This is a great movie for its honest portrayal of the effects an alcoholic has on the family he or she loves and on the long climb out of the world of alcoholism. Alice and Michael are not really living the American dream but the American nightmare, because of Alice's need for one drink after another. Both Ryan and Garcia are truly wonderful in roles that call upon them to be both lovable and repugnant, at the same time. The other cast members, including Ellen Burstyn and the two lovely little girl-actresses, are also just perfect. Naturally, the settings in San Fran and Mexico are great, especially the Green's beautiful old house. Costumes, too, are very well-chosen and all other other productions values of direction, photography and story are most worthy, too. Then, too, the film also has great value as a movie to show the realities of alcoholism to any audience that could benefit from such a view. In summary, if you are a man or woman who loves movies that tell a tale well, with gorgeous stars, even if it might result in a few shed tears, this is a great choice. You might even pop it in when you need a "good cry", for it has wonderful cathartic elements.

Thorsten-Krings I really hated this film. I quite liked the beginning when Meg Ryan descended from bubbly to downright alcoholic but then the rest of the film was just completely lost on me. First and foremost, I find it a failure in the script that the story focused entirely on the relationship between the two grown ups and neglected the children. Personally, I think this would have been the more interesting story. But secondly, I just didn't get what Garcia's character was supposed to have done wrong. I honestly didn't although I was prepared to. So he may have been a macho but I saw him as being portrayed as supportive and a victim of her alcoholism just as the rest of the family. Why he should be partly responsible for it is beyond me as it was never properly explained.

buiger I have to disagree with the critics once again. This was nothing more than a below average movie. It might have deserved a rating a little higher than 2 stars, but the ending definitely ruined whatever good was seen in the movie beforehand. I found the script was too simplistic, and the acting nothing more than average (even though I am a huge Meg Ryan fan). Andy Garcia on the other hand was totally miss-cast for the role in my opinion (come on critics, before giving up all those stars, can't you imagine the acting in such a movie by let's say... Merryl Streep and William Hurt? Just think about it... The general public on IMDb had much more sense and gave it a lower average score than the critics).This is a film with no real emotions in my opinion. We never really get the feel of the relationship between Ryan and Garcia in the beginning. We never really get to sympathize or feel for the characters as the movie moves along. None of it ever seems real... and everything seems too obvious. In order to compensate for this, the movie resolves itself in the typically Hollywoodian feel-good manner. The film is based on the currently very much in vogue culture of permissiveness; everybody can do anything and it's OK: the wife can trash a car parked on the curb and that's OK, the kids can half demolish the house, that's OK, etc. How very typical of the '68 generation. Furthermore, building on this concept, the film shows how it is OK to be weak, positive to be a loser, but if you are strong, have values and principles, live according to a set of rules, you are out, almost as if you where sick, you have to be 'healed' so that you too can become a loser... How politically correct can you get? No, definitely not for me...