When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story.
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Location
2 West Street
New York, NY
United States
Despite my admiration for David Letterman and a passing fascination with the hackiness of Two And A Half Men and The Big Bang Theory, I don’t watch CBS all that often. A recent exception was Sunday night’s Hallmark Hall Of Fame presentation of When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story, a better-than-average TV movie to say the least.
When Love Is Not Enough was directed by John Kent Harrison and based on a book by William G. Borchert, who also wrote the 1985 TV movie My Name Is Bill W., which starred James Woods and James Garner. Both stories are about the World War I veteran and Wall Street banker Bill Wilson, who is most famous today as the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. Lois Wilson was Bill Wilson’s wife, who is somewhat lesser known but also an influential figure for her role in the creation of Al-Anon, the support organization for friends and relatives of alcoholics who also need a place to talk about the damaging effects of alcohol addiction on their lives.
When Love Is Not Enough is fairly straightforward and conventional, yet it still packs some real emotional power. This is due to its cast, which consists of Winona Ryder and Barry Pepper and no one else you’ve probably ever heard of. Winona Ryder in this movie has a fragile loveliness, a vulnerability, that is immediately sympathetic. She’s never been the most forceful actress but she is clearly working so hard here that her dedication mirrors the dedication of her character, a woman who could not and would not abandon her husband, no matter how far he fell.
The best reason to see this movie, however, is Barry Pepper. One of my favorite character actors, Barry Pepper has been quietly giving terrific film performances for a decade and a half. He was the God-fearing sniper in Saving Private Ryan, the coarse but loyal banker in 25th Hour, the boorish and racist border guard in The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada, and a scarily-perfectly-cast Roger Maris in the HBO movie 61*. There’s a good argument to be made that playing the lead in Battlefield Earth – which, please take my word for it, is one of the most unwatchable movies of all time – unfairly derailed Barry Pepper’s career, because otherwise I can’t think of a single reason why he doesn’t have the status of a Don Cheadle or a Philip Seymour Hoffman. Pepper is just that talented, and When Love Is Not Enough should be added to his greatness reel. He’s equally convincing here as the adoring husband, the pathetic weeping wretch, and the monstrously self-destructive lout – and many times he’s required to play all three modes at once. He’s always sympathetic, an important achievement when playing a character who much of the audience would no doubt be ready to pass judgment upon. Due to Pepper’s portrayal, it’s clear why Lois Wilson tries so hard to save her husband – it’s a study in miniature of a more universal kind of love that most of us can easily understand.
If there are flaws with this production, they’re harder to notice because of Pepper’s grounding performance. Lois Wilson does feel something like a supporting player in her own story – especially because the story structure condenses her founding of Al-Anon into the last fifteen minutes. Too much of the story is dedicated to the years of Bill’s struggle – while this is certainly profoundly important, it’s not evenly distributed in a story that, by definition of its title, should be focusing more on Lois. Also, as likable and as modern and relatable as the actors make their interactions and dialogue, the whole thing does have that element of corniness and squareness that one might expect from a Hallmark production. But the basic truth is that this story has an elemental force, aided by the two lead performances, that is affecting and worthwhile no matter the method of telling.
I may not have ever expected to recommend a TV movie not airing on HBO, but here I am. Check this one out. Just bring a strong stomach, and a hankerchief.
