New TV Film: "When Love is Not Enough."

[vulcannonibird]

Well, can't see it on amazon so far....

Maybe E1 wants it only to be shipped inside the US like the Hallmark store does....

[CHRIS B]

Well, can't see it on amazon so far....

Maybe E1 wants it only to be shipped inside the US like the Hallmark store does....

I'm sure you guys outside the US will be able to find a copy! I really wouldn't be too worried! Plus, there is always ebay... and perhaps mabye even a friendly American or two to help you out!

[CHRIS B]

When Love Is Not Enough Explores the Story of the Founder of Al-Anon

When Love Is Not Enough is the perfect Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. It has a strong message wrapped up in an interesting story performed by superb actors. Winona Ryder and Barry Pepper star in the story of Lois Wilson (Ryder), wife of Bill Wilson (Pepper) the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. Lois was the founder of Al-Anon, the organization for the families of alcoholics.

This is the second Hallmark film about this family. In 1989 James Woods starred in My Name Is Bill W., which was focused on the founder of AA. This time out it is his wife's turn and her story is a heart-wrenching one. The movie follows the Wilsons' love story from 1914 till 1951. During that time Lois supported and endured her love for her husband. He started out a casual drinker but soon developed into a raging alcoholic. No matter how many times he pledged to stop he always fell short, and Lois was always there to pick up the pieces.

Eventually Bill did overcome his addiction but Lois still had a vacancy in her heart. She needed something for herself and out of that need came Al-Anon. This was an organization she started which gave the families of alcoholics a place to vent their anger and their love.

Ryder has not been seen on screen much lately. This role should bring her back into the public eye. She is perfect for the part -- fragile but strong, attractive but not beautiful, loving but not blind. All of the nuances of Lois' personality are played to perfection by Ryder.

Pepper is equally good as Bill, maybe even better. He manages to bring Bill Wilson full circle and make him believable at every turn. Pepper is good in every role he undertakes but this performance is a highlight in an already outstanding career.

The fact this movie is a message vehicle might alienate some members of the audience, but the strengths of AA are shown, not preached. Bill has a spiritual epiphany that brings his drinking to an end but that point is not belabored. It is a factor in his final sobriety but not a miracle cure.

It is to the credit of those persons behind the Hallmark Hall of Fame that they do seek out uplifting stories such as this one and Front of the Class, to name two. We have enough entertainment vehicles that point toward the negative so a little optimism is much appreciated.

When Love Is Not Enough will air on CBS, Sunday, April 25 at 9PM.

http://www.huffingtonpost...-not-enough_b_542246.html

[CHRIS B]

[CHRIS B]

Television Reviews
When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story -- TV Review
By Randee Dawn, April 21, 2010 05:04 ET
 
"When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story"Bottom Line: The glass is half-full thanks to beautiful detailing mixed with a stiff shot of talent.
Behind every great man there stands an equally great woman, or so they say. In the case of Bill and Lois Wilson, behind one very drunk man there stood a sober, suffering wife.

Fortunately, the sober, suffering wife of CBS' Hallmark Hall of Fame film "When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story" is played by Winona Ryder, recalling the period winsomeness and inner steel she displayed in "The Age of Innocence." Lois, the educated, older wife of "country boy" Bill (Barry Pepper) was not the first co-dependent married to a drunk, but she proved to be the pillar of strength that allowed him to get sober and conjure Alcoholics Anonymous, after which she became the matriarch of Al-Anon.

"Love" is a standardly structured tale with the occasional dud line -- "I guess being sober has its own challenges" -- but that flatness is easily offset by the fine production values (come on, it is Hallmark). The period design, always a challenge on a television budget, is detailed and warm, the costumes true and textured. The hats alone deserve special recognition.

Ryder, Pepper and the supporting cast are fine, if never too-deeply drawn; during the course of their years together, Lois puts up with about 110% more garbage than a modern woman would today.

Bill's drinking and recovery costs her everything, including the family home, but it's always clear that this couple is devoted to each other. Calling it "When Love Is Not Enough" might mirror the title of the book it is based on, but isn't quite fair: Love doesn't fail the Wilsons; the inner will to quit and society's miscomprehension of alcoholism does.

"Love" is a pleasant, burnished look at two intertwined lives. A second layer to their relationship goes ignored -- nary a hint of Bill's real-life philandering emerges, for example -- but it's a biopic, not a miniseries, after all.

Early on, Lois remarks about how many people are drawn "into the vortex of the alcoholic." More still are likely to be drawn in thanks to "Love," perhaps emerging with a deeper understanding of how we became a 12-step nation.

Airdate: 9-10 p.m. Sunday, April 25 (CBS)
Production: E1 Entertainment in association with Hallmark Hall of Fame Prods
Cast: Winona Ryder, Barry Pepper, John Bourgeois, Rosemary Dunsmore
Executive producers: Ira Pincus, John Morayniss, Brent Shields
Writers: William G. Borchert, Camille Thomasson
Based on the book by: William G. Borchert
Co-executive producer: Peter Duchow
Supervising producer: Suzanne Berger
Producer: Terry Gould
Director: John Kent Harrison
Director of photography: Miroslaw Baszak
Production designer: Lindsey Hermer Bell
Costume designer: Trysha Bakker
Casting: Lisa Parasyn, Jon Comerford, Molly Lopata

http://www.hollywoodrepor...s-wilson-1004084691.story

[CHRIS B]

The Birth of Alanon: A TV Special of Lois W's Life

"They say that no fewer than four people are affected by someone's drinking, I counted seven," reflects Lois Wilson. Seven people whose lives were profoundly affected by one person's addiction. If you have ever cared about or been an addict, don't miss When Love is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story on Sunday, April 25th at 9:00 pm on CBS. You will see your life flash before your eyes.

Lois Wilson, wife of Bill Wilson co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, led an unusual life, one of great disappointments and great triumphs. Theirs was a great romance. A romance laced with heartbreak and tragedy, of love prevailing over the odds. A story of trying and failing over and over and over again to help her husband get sober. A story of losing the dream of children, of family, of security and eventually even sanity to a disease that no one knew was a disease. Of being discarded, lied to, over worked and under appreciated, of attaining dreams only to see them shattered. Of working job after job to support her dreamer of a husband who could not seem to succeed at anything he tried. But he finally did succeed. He succeeded in giving the world one of its greatest healing networks of all time. Alcoholics Anonymous AA. And Lois's gift to the family members whose lives were shattered by living with addiction was Alanon.

The sadness that becomes the lot of someone who loves and depends upon a person who cannot or will not stop using alcohol or drugs can be nearly unbearable.

William Borchert does a masterful job of showing this battle, scene by scene, struggle by struggle, betrayal by betrayal.

Those who believed in Bill Wilson became bankrupt financially, emotionally and even morally. But this is where Lois Wilson drew the line. And she prevailed. She somehow kept her faith against all odds. Even though she learned the bitter lesson that her love was not enough to get her husband sober, their extraordinary faith and love in eachother began what we know today as the self help movement.

When Lois seemed to have lost it all, when she had barely enough sense of self left to scrape into a semblance of a person, she experienced still one more loss. On her deathbed, her mother who had hereto fore councelled Lois to stay no matter what, with the man she loved said these dying words....

"I haven't always given you the wisest advise, I admire you for standing by Bill. We all pray for him and you help him as you can....But Lois You must find your own life, what makes You happy, ...otherwise I fear you'll be filled with bitterness for being robbed of that life. Don't let that happen to you." Perhaps, if there is any message that underlies ALANON, it is this one. That to help another we must have a sense of self that is our own, so that when we look into the privacy of our own hearts, something is there, something that we can hold dear, treasure and draw strength from.

Lois Wilson's extraordinary fight to help her husband to get sober is so moving an account of faith, doggedness and sheer will that anyone who has struggled to overcome anything will benefit from seeing it.The despair of the person who loves an addict....and the slow erosion of positive self regard is beautifully and fully evident in Ms. Ryder's performance as she elegantly portrays the profound frustration and loss of self that occurs for the one who loves an addict and her own struggle for sanity. "Every time you get drunk I feel like it's my fault. But I don't have to live like this any more. Yes, you are crazy and you're making me crazy, too."

Barry Pepper's stunning and penetrating performance as Bill Wilson will tear at the heart of anyone who has ever loved an addict. Wilson who had tried everything he knew to get sober finally discovered that, "it seems just by talking to them [other alcoholics] it's keeping me sober, it's drunks helping drunks."

As the early gatherings that first comprised AA occurred in living rooms, wives sat lonely and bitter.
One evening in desperation for a friend to talk to, Lois walked around the cars that were parked outside of her husband's "meeting". In them she found women who routinely drove their husbands around because they wanted to make certain they got to where they were going without crashing the family car or going to a bar. For so long they waited for their husband's to get sober, but when sobriety finally came.... pain, anger and hurt began to surface from years of denying their own losses. The wives started to gather over a cup of tea and share while their their husbands met, with the same rigorous honesty and open heartedness. They came to understand that just as their husbands were obsessed with alcohol, they had become obsessed with their husbands. "If there is healing for them," said Lois, " there must be healing for us, too" The gatherings became known as Lois's kitchen meetings. And eventually as Alanon.

When one of the husbands complained of the wives "talking about us" Bill Wilson wisely counseled "They're only trying to climb out from underneath the wreckage we caused, they're only trying to get well like we do." Thanks to the love and compassion of two people with vision and a need for community, those of us who have lived with addiction, whether as an addict or a co-addict, have somewhere to go to heal.

William Borchert and Camile Thomasson his co-scriptwriter have done something wonderful and Hallmark has too. The Hallmark movie is based on the book by Borchert, The Lois Wilson Story: When Love Is Not Enough (Hazelden, 2005).

http://www.huffingtonpost...lanona-tv-s_b_545363.html

[kashyy]

On Set pictures. More at http://winona-ryder.org/

[CHRIS B]

Glad to see all these good reviews for the film and Winona! It's been a while...

This new Hallmark Hall of Fame focuses on "Bill W.'s" wife, Lois, played skillfully by Winona Ryder, who blames herself for her inability to keep her husband sobe

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.c...2342-67.stm#ixzz0lqaQ9qd2

[CHRIS B]

Ryder and Pepper shine in film about alcoholism

Winona Ryder does solid job as leading character in film about creation of Alcoholics Anonymous

Date published: 4/23/2010

By Rob Hedelt

WATCHING an alcoholic slowly destroy himself, pulling his loved ones down with him, isn't an easy thing to experience.

That's why the Sunday night's new Hallmark Hall of Fame film, "When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story," is rough sledding at times.

But like many of the films in this thoughtful, long-running film series on CBS, the journey is worth it, thanks to an inspirational tale and solid performances from both leads.

This is the story of the couple who founded Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon, the support group for loved ones of alcoholics.

With the production values this series is known for, the film takes us back to a supposedly simpler time, right after World War I when sweet, young Lois falls for farm boy Bill and marries.

When he returns from the war, things go swimmingly for a while, with Bill landing a job in the stock market and Lois working as a nurse and trying to have a child.

Lois slowly comes to realize that her husband has a drinking problem.

Here begins the realistically hurtful suffering and countless bouts of hope and failure, with the good-natured Bill trying to beat his addiction to alcohol but failing at every try.

Berry Pepper does a nice job of acting as Bill, letting us see enough good in the man to raise our hopes for his redemption, but letting streaks of weakness and pain show as well.

In addition, Pepper seems born to the part, with a face that looks perfect in the fedoras he favors and a sorrowful gaze that completes the character.

But it's Winona Ryder--yes, that Winona, who makes this film. After all, it's Lois' story, not Bill's, and if it were ever true that there's a strong woman behind every strong man in history, this is it.

During all those times Bill is struggling and failing, Lois is the stalwart, the rock, the one who keeps the couple together, body and soul.

http://fredericksburg.com...10/042010/04232010/543024

[vulcannonibird]

Positive: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

This new Hallmark Hall of Fame focuses on "Bill W.'s" wife, Lois, played skillfully by Winona Ryder, who blames herself for her inability to keep her husband sober. As Bill W., Barry Pepper gives the role all he's got. Their performances are reason enough to see the movie, which, despite some powerful moments, seems disjointed and too familiar.

Negative: Variety - and thats an important one...

As for Ryder, she effectively spans the movie's decades from youth to middle age, but is somewhat handcuffed by Lois' situation. Although the character's patience is rewarded, an audience choosing to stick with "When Love Is Not Enough" won't be quite so fortunate.

[CHRIS B]

Positive: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

This new Hallmark Hall of Fame focuses on "Bill W.'s" wife, Lois, played skillfully by Winona Ryder, who blames herself for her inability to keep her husband sober. As Bill W., Barry Pepper gives the role all he's got. Their performances are reason enough to see the movie, which, despite some powerful moments, seems disjointed and too familiar.

Negative: Variety - and thats an important one...

As for Ryder, she effectively spans the movie's decades from youth to middle age, but is somewhat handcuffed by Lois' situation. Although the character's patience is rewarded, an audience choosing to stick with "When Love Is Not Enough" won't be quite so fortunate.

But it does say at the beginning of the article

"earnest performances by Winona Ryder and Barry Pepper!"

That's positive!

[CHRIS B]

When Love Is Not Enough
Sunday, 8 pm (CBS)

Winona Ryder is terrible in period dramas (see The Age of Innocence, The Crucible, etc.), but she keeps getting cast in them. The latest is When Love Is Not Enough, set in the 1920s. I admit that Ryder looks lovely in her flapper hats, but her stilted line readings make it hard to accept her in the role of Al-Anon founder Lois Wilson. Lois and husband Bill (Barry Pepper) marry after World War I, confident that love will be enough. But the movie's title should have been a tip-off. Bill becomes an alcoholic, and we spend a lot of time watching him spiral into the dreary depths.

There's not much to keep us entertained here, and after about an hour you're grateful that at least Ryder looks lovely in her flapper hats.

Ummm... huh? ...except for the fact that she's been nominated twice for and Academy Award and both times the films were...umm... period dramas! 

[CHRIS B]

Tune in to today's "Entertainment Tonight." They will be airing a clip from the film!

[CHRIS B]

Another not so great review.

"When Love Is Not Enough" stars Barry Pepper and Winona Ryder. Although Ryder may seem like ideal casting - a woman attempting to rebuild her career after her infamous pharmaceutically fueled shoplifting conviction - she lacks, ironically, the emotional heft to anchor the film.

Barely able to convince us that she's a woman who has suffered multiple miscarriages, much less a falling-down-drunk husband, Ryder appears, until the last quarter of the film, physically and emotionally incapable of evoking the constant, sickeningly hypnotic swing of fear and fury, hope and hopelessness that marks an alcoholic marriage.

Pepper, best known as the devoutly Christian sharpshooter of "Saving Private Ryan," meanwhile, does his level best. Using his angular grace and haunted eyes to their best advantage, he creates a believable portrait of a man whose slide toward hell stops a hair's breadth away from the roiling magma. But it's Lois' movie and Ryder, though sweet-voiced and still heartbreakingly lovely, spends most of it looking bewildered. With her period clothing and mannerisms, she looks like a child playing dress up.

Read more: http://www.sunherald.com/...e-lois.html#ixzz0lxVqg6d4

[eagle-rare]

 "...a woman attempting to rebuild her career after her infamous pharmaceutically fueled shoplifting conviction,..."

First of all, this clown can't write a proper sentence.
Her shoplifting conviction was pharmaceutically fueled?
We should start drug testing the jury.
Or the critics.
This guy has issues,it's obvious, who gives a @#$%?
 I don't care about reviews.
 I don't care about awards.
I don't care if she shared a pizza with Mr. Gooding in Italy last year.

But I am kind of curious as to what she smells like.

Let's watch the movie.