Movie review: 'Bill W.'

First-time filmmakers Kevin Hanlon and Dan Carracino gently part the veil of anonymity that A.A. shrewdly maintains to tell the story of William G. Wilson, a successful Wall Street analyst who lost his career to alcoholism during the Depression and saw his life come unraveled. With the aid of physician friend and fellow alcoholic Robert Smith, known in A.A. parlance as Dr. Bob, and influenced by the evangelical Oxford Group and the soothing Serenity Prayer, Wilson helped perfect the famous 12-step program that is the bedrock of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Making ample use of audio recordings of Wilson in his many inspirational public appearances, of grainy archival footage and of interviews with people who knew him, the filmmakers weave together an illuminating if slightly undramatic portrait of a man who shaped the tatters of his own life into a durable organization that has positively affected the lives of millions.

Since the recorded details of Wilson's life are not necessarily the stuff of gripping drama (although the solid 1989 made-for-TV biopic, “My Name is Bill W.,” made a game effort), Hanlon and Carracino fall back on some cumbersome re-enactments to flesh out scenes of Wilson's descent into drunkenness, his battles with depression and his lifelong struggle to remain sober. Those don't always mesh smoothly with the rest of the film.