When a Man Loves a Woman: The To Leslie of the ’90s Rom-Com Craze

The decade of the 90s was absolutely bursting with romantic comedies. Between Meg Ryan in films like Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, and French Kiss and Julia Roberts in my Best Friend's Wedding, Runaway Bride, and Notting Hill, the two leading ladies pretty much cornered the market on the genre. But one role that Ryan took on was a complete departure for her. In the midst of her run of rom-coms, Ryan played an alcoholic mother of two young girls in the 1994 family drama film, When a Man Loves a Woman, opposite Andy García. There is very little romance and absolutely no comedy in this one. The role was a powerful one that details the life of an upper-middle-class woman living in San Francisco who starts to struggle with the vicissitudes of everyday life and parenting small children and turns to alcohol to deal with her anxieties. Ryan received a SAG nomination for her portrayal. It is, for better or worse, the 90s version of the 2023 Oscar-nominated role of Leslie Rowlands (Andrea Riseborough) in the film, To Leslie. There are some undeniable similarities between the two characters that are separated by 30 years, and though they may have very different backgrounds and find themselves in very separate economic situations, both share a disease that is a brutal and unyielding equalizer.