When A Man Loves A Woman (1994)
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Cast: Meg Ryan, Andy Garcia, Lauren Tom, Ellen Burstyn
Extras: Theatrical Trailer
Rating:

Starring Meg Ryan and Andy Garcia, ’When A Man Loves A Woman’ is a powerful drama in which a couple tries to make their rocky way through their marriage. Alice’s and Michael’s life is affected quite seriously through Alice’s dependence on alcohol that is getting worse as time goes by. Michael puts all his love, hopes and faith in the love he has for Alice and tries to help her overcome the addiction that is slowly tearing them apart.

Buena Vista Home Entertainment is presenting ’When A Man Loves A Woman’ in a letterboxed transfer that restores the movie’s 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Although not enhanced for 16×9 television sets, the image is highly detailed and practically without flaws. With faithfully rendered colors, the transfer features strong hues without over-saturation and naturally looking skin tones. No edge-enhancement is visible in the transfer and the complete lack of compression artifacts proves once again that Buena Vista Home Entertainment is producing some of the best looking non-anamorphic transfers in the market.

The disc features a Dolby Surround audio track in English and French that is well integrated and creates a good ambient atmosphere for the movie. The frequency response is wide and creates a natural sounding sound field. Dialogues are always understandable and never drowned out by the sound effects.

’When A Man Loves A Woman’ is everything you would expect it to be. Heartfelt, romantic, touching and emotional, but the high caliber cast manages to bring it all across very naturally without superficiality. The script presents us with a relationship that constantly develops, keeping viewers interested and attached for the movie’s entire running length.