User Reviews

Like the last reviewer, I was also expecting at least a hint at Bill W's notorious womanizing, and it was disappointing that Lois W's experience wasn't fully represented. But I think the movie was successful in capturing the ongoing destructiveness of the disease and eventual dissolution of hope, as well as the expectation that love can fix everything. The acting was real. Winona Ryder's beauty is toned down but she is still beautiful and also believable, and--like most alcoholics I know--Barry Pepper's Bill W was mesmerizing and charismatic. When he's on screen, you can't take your eyes off him. It's a beautiful movie to watch, with lush sets and costumes. The pacing is good, as well.

As a recovered alcoholic and student of AA history, I found myself shaking my head with both disappointment and amusement as I watched this movie. In addition to the overly melodramatic tone, the story left out several critical facts, among them: (1) Bill W. was an absolutely notorious womanizer, not only while drinking but also after he got sober, even going so far as to leave 10% of his Big Book royalties to his favorite mistress, Helen W.; (2) the writing of the Big Book was a collaboration, and several chapters were not written by Bill W., although he alone got royalties; (3) the chapter in the BB entitled "To Wives", which was presented as having been written by Lois, was actually written by Bill, who apparently did not believe that she could do it justice--this infuriated Lois (and one can only imagine her thoughts about Bill's bequest to his mistress).

To my mind, leaving those things out turned this story into nothing more than Hallmark's usual pabulum. I would vastly have preferred the truth, which is that Lois never stopped putting up with an incredible degree of selfishness and arrogance from Bill, because he cheated on her for their entire marriage. Not only that, but his predatory behavior was a big problem in early AA, so much so that a "Founders Watch" committee was formed in an attempt to keep him from hitting on the attractive, vulnerable women coming to the program for help. The sickening sweetness with which Bill and Lois's relationship was portrayed did nothing to edify: it was like a typical, predicable, and ultimately untruthful AA lead in which the alcoholic finds AA, receives the "miracle of sobriety" and lives happy ever after.

The one thing I did like about the movie was that it presented Al-Anon for the most part as what Al-Anon actually is: a 12 step program where members work exactly the same steps as AA. Many people, including mental health professionals, mistakenly believe that Al-Anon exists to help family members understand what the alcoholic is going through, or to help him or her quit drinking, when nothing could be further from the truth.

After I watched this eagerly awaited, but ultimately disappointing film, one of my first thoughts was that this film needed its own version of Al-Anon. Lois Wilson, like many spouses of users, spent all of her energies dealing with the fall-out of living with an alcoholic; did the movie have to do the same thing? When one has less than two hours to tell a complex story about a fascinating woman, did we really need an hour and twenty or thirty minutes of the constant cycle of dankness, shame, recriminations, and broken promises? Don't get me wrong, I'm sure this harrowing cycle repeats itself in every user's home--it's just that when there was so little time to tell such a complicated story, I would have preferred less binges and more character development. I didn't get a good sense of what drew these two together in the first place. There were so few scenes other than those of "saintly wife props up troubled husband," that I just didn't get a sense of them as a married couple. I didn't feel Pepper and Ryder had that much chemistry together. Since much was made of the fact that the real Lois Wilson was 3 or 4 years older than Bill, it didn't help the situation to cast an actress with such a youthful persons with an actor who always looked appreciably older than her--and, yes, I know drink ages you, but he looked a lot older than her at the wedding. Hallmark seems to have lost its mojo.

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"When love is not enough" is an amazing TV film based upon the novel "The Lois Wilson story:when love is not enough" by William Borchet. The screen adaptation centers on Lois Wilson's(Winona Ryder)struggle with the alcohol dependence of her husband Bill Wilson(Barry Pepper)and the subsequent foundation of such institutions as Al-Anon and Alcoholics Anonymous that for the first time dealt publicly with this plague.The script displays efficiently and it offers plenty of dramatic moments played exceptionally by the two leading actors. Winona Ryder("The age of innocence";"Little women";"The crucible","Girl,interrupted"),in her first meaty role in years,is and proves again to be the serious dramatic actress we were used to;Barry Pepper is extraordinary in a challenging role. How such an incredible leads have been ignored by the Emmys and the Golden Globes, except a Screen Actors Guild award nomination for Miss Ryder and many Satellite award nominations, is a true mystery. Such a shame. My vote is 10/10.

When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story is a somewhat-fictionalized Hallmark movie about the life and travails of Bill W., co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, and particularly of his wife Lois, founder of Al-Anon.

The movie covers the time period from their wedding in 1918 until roughly the 1950s. Even early on, there's a pattern of Lois "propping up" Bill, supporting him financially when he struggles to find a career, then convincing a friend to hire him at his financial firm. Bill is a roaring success at finance, but it's stressful work, and he starts to blow off steam with frequent drunken nights out with friends. This soon gives way to drinking at the office, and with the market crash of 1929 Bill finds himself suddenly unemployed and nose-diving into chronic alcoholism, while Lois scrambles to keep them afloat. Over the next several years, the couple struggle with Bill's drinking as well as poverty, health issues, and social isolation until Bill finally stumbles across Dr. Bob Smith, with whom he co-founded AA and found lasting sobriety.

The movie does a good job of portraying the nightmarish isolation of alcoholism, for both Bill and Lois. AA has become increasingly controversial in recent years, but really was a game-changer when it came about. As Lois herself pointed out, the only real option for "drunks" before then was the mental asylum - a possibility Bill is threatened with when he's at his lowest.

However, as Lois herself alludes at one point, we're supposed to be talking about her now. As little as alcoholism was understood, associated concepts such as "codependency" and "enabling" were even less understood. Lois' behaviour is never referred to as such in this movie, but it's still demonstrated in spades. This is what I truly appreciate about this movie - it isn't another tired "troubled man saved by a good woman" story - the point is that Lois can't save Bill no matter what she does, and he has to find his own path.

Lois stands by her man, and rather than heroic loyalty, it's portrayed as mutually-assured destruction. At a time when divorce was still rare and somewhat scandalous, Lois' friends and family implore her to leave, only to do so themselves when they can no longer stand to watch. Over the years, Lois loses her financial security, her home, her most treasured possessions, most of her family and friends, her physical and mental health, and her ability to have or adopt children. And for all that, it's not a coincidence that the key moments leading to Bill's sobriety happen when she's not around to smooth his path.

Lois, to her own surprise, is angry and distraught at Bill's recovery (another facet of codependency - she admits that she had wanted to be the one to "save" him, and she doesn't quite know what to do with herself when he no longer needs so much caretaking). During one of his AA meetings, she steps outside to find the wife of one of the attendees sitting in a car - and then realizes the entire street is lined with wives in cars, not trusting their husbands to drive themselves to and from Bill's meetings. Inviting the women in for tea, their commiserations over their husbands' drinking leads to the founding of a second group, Al-Anon, supporting the loved ones of alcoholics. It is here that Lois begins to understand her own "illness" and how quite contrary to "saving" Bill, she'd been making things worse.

With this, the fact that the movie ends with Lois first quietly turning a conversation back to herself when Bill begins to shift the topic to his feelings, then with them having an actual fight, is actually quite optimistic. It's the full circle not only of Bill's recovery, but also of Lois', as she finally learns to stop revolving around Bill's needs and assert her own, even forcefully if necessary.

Of course the movie has its drawbacks too, as others have mentioned - certain details have been omitted (particularly Bill's rumoured lecherous nature in addition to his drinking - poor Lois!), and Hallmark movies always tend towards the saccharine and the melodramatic. The real people and real events were of course more complex than what the movie portrayed. That said, overall I quite liked this movie, and I felt it did a good job of hitting all the emotional notes it needed to for a satisfying story.

I usually don't care for this type of film - spending ninety minutes witnessing the tragedy of the human condition is not my idea of entertainment. However this film is better than the run-of-the-mill tale of man's descent into misery and eventual rehabilitation - much better! The story isn't the thing, although it does give a sobering (if you'll excuse the pun) insight into alcoholism. The really striking thing about this film is the performance of its two principal players. Winona Ryder surprised me with the strength of her presentation, she goes through hell but she is never a figure of pity. And Barry Pepper was astoundingly, almost frighteningly, good. This man is a drunk's drunk, as real as I can imagine any performance being. This film isn't all Walt Disney and happy families (thank God) but it is very good - although you may feel you need a stiff drink when it's done!