Richard Dreyfuss plays a reckless pilot who tells his girlfriend she'll never get over him, dies early on in the film, and is then given a kind-of mission by Hep (an incredible-looking 60-year old Audrey Hepburn) to do an unselfish act. Spielberg has the gift to draw you in, but on a scale of Spielberg to Home Video, 'Always' disappoints. There is something unsatisfying about it - we're used to such entertainment from Spielberg, that when he delivers us an intimate, personal film about grief, it can't help but seem lacking. It is uneven and flawed - mainly because it is shallow and naive. In so many places it compromises its intimacy in order to lighten the mood: the bawdy jokes in the first ten minutes, the supernaturalism. Then there is the nauseating screen presence of Richard Dreyfuss, who tries to balance the sentimentalism of the material but ends up looking obnoxious. First prize for the worst laugh in cinema history. Rent 'Ghost' (1990) instead.
Review of Always
