When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story

When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story (2010) Director: John Kent Harrison First Watched: 4/22/25 6/10 Stars

AA origins, clunky, cliche Hallmark; but title's the truth- baby nor God can save you when alcohol's your true love.

#Tanka #PoemReview

The Tanka is tending poetry form with poems containing five lines. Each line has a set number of syllables, creating an overall syllabic pattern of 5-7-5-7-7. Tanka are divided into an upper phrase, containing the first three lines, and the lower phrase, which contains the last two lines. There are no meter or rhyming requirements attached to these poems.

At the beginning of this fact-based Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation about the couple who helped start Alcoholics Anonymous, Lois and Bill Wilson get married in 1918 before he goes off to serve in World War I.

After the war, Bill returns home and works on Wall Street. Lois, whose father is a doctor, works as a nurse with the mentally ill.

Bill realizes that it would be helpful for investors to know about the companies they invest in, so he starts analyzing the companies, something not done much in the past. This involves lots of travel, including a motorcycle trip with Lois that involves comic misadventures.

The work is stressful but eventually rewarding. Bill copes with the stress by drinking. He and his friends often get together and drink. Never mind Prohibition. Everyone in this movie finds a way.

Bill gets abusive when he drinks, but he keeps promising he will stop. And then he eventually starts again and the problems continue.

Lois gets pregnant but can never carry a baby to term. Perhaps this is all for the best since it wouldn't be a good idea to bring up a child in a home where the father behaves the way Bill sometimes does. One of the couple's friends admits this when the couple tries to adopt.

The Depression eventually puts an end to the prosperity the Wilsons and so many others have experienced. Bill finds this a reason to drink, but sooner or later he will have to stop one way or another.

This movie does a good job of showing how hard it is to stop drinking and to keep from starting again, and shows how it is possible for people with a common problem to support each other.

Winona Ryder and Barry Pepper both do a very good job. I expect Ryder to be nominated for some award.

I enjoyed the music. During the 1920s, there is a lot of music which one could dance the Charleston to, but there are also other enjoyable styles of music from that era. One song included a fiddle and several other instruments.

I wouldn't recommend this to young children because the subject matter is quite adult, but this is still a family movie in a sense and doesn't really include offensive content. So much of the movie is depressing and hard to watch, but there is plenty of positive content too.

It's a worthy effort.

Congratulations to Hallmark for making an incredibly important movie for all the families of alcohol addicted loved ones. 95% of the movies on the Hallmark Channel always seem to be saccharine stories of couples in love, and they usually take place in some make believe perfect little town. This story is raw and real. It gives hope to those who may want to quit believing for the best in others, while illustrating what a devil of a disease alcohol addiction is.

I wish Hallmark would make more true biographies. They were common in the movies 50 years ago, and serve to enlighten and educate viewers, young and old.

This true story is amazing and should be seen by every struggling alcoholic and their families. Every minister and addiction counselor, and pastor should see this, and it should be in every church library. How Lois Wilson, co-dependent and living in a nightmare, rose from her dire circumstances and out of love for her husband, took the lead in healing him. She did this through inviting his alcoholic friends to their home - the opposite of what most women or parents would be inclined to do. One evening she discovered the wives, who had driven their husbands, parked out front, waiting for them,, and invited them in, to become friends and support for each other. I have no doubt Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-non are straight from God, and Lois Wilson was his servant who out of love for her husband, rose above her own desperate circumstances to help her husband and untold others The list of those who receive the benefit of her inspiration and work goes on and on ........! James Welch Henderson, Arkansas 3/16/2021

Just watched this "Hallmark Hall of Fame" TV movie on my DVR. It stars Winona Ryder as the wife of the founder of Alcoholics Annonymous, Bill Wilson, here portrayed by Barry Pepper. Over and over again, after he goes from the joys of Wall Street to the firing after the Stock Market Crash, Lois suffers from his constant drinking despite frequent promises to stop until he hits rock bottom and starts his program. But she still can't have him to herself so when she invites the other wives of reformed alcoholics to the home, she inadvertently starts her own group called Al-Anon. I have to tell you right now, all those scenes of Ms. Ryder just crying and getting angry really put me through the ringer! I've read about some of the omissions of their lives in the other comments but despite that, I found this film very compelling to watch and quite inspirational too. So on that note, I highly recommend When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story.