Amazon.com video review:
Considered by many to represent a low point in Steven Spielberg's
career,
1990's Always did suggest something of a temporary drift in the
director's sensibility. A remake of the
classic Spencer Tracy film A Guy Named Joe, Always stars
Richard Dreyfuss as a Forest Service pilot who takes great risks with his
own
life to douse wildfires from a plane. After promising his frightened
fiancée
(Holly Hunter) to keep his feet on the ground and go into teaching,
Dreyfuss's character is killed during one last flight. But his spirit
wanders
restlessly, hopelessly attached to and possessive of Hunter, who can't see
or
hear him. Then the real conflict begins: a trainee pilot (Brad Johnson), a
likable doofus, begins wooing a not-unappreciative Hunter--and it becomes
Dreyfuss's heavenly mandate to accept, and even assist in, their budding
romance. The trouble with the film is a certain airlessness, a
hyper-inventiveness in every scene and sequence that screams of Spielberg's
self-education in Hollywood classicism. Unlike the masters he is constantly
quoting and emulating in Always, he forgets to back off and let the
movie breathe on its own sometimes, which would better serve his clockwork
orchestration of suspense and comedy elsewhere. Still, there are lovely
passages in this film, such as the unforgettable look on Dreyfuss's face a
half-second before fate claims him. John Goodman contributes good supporting
work,
and Audrey Hepburn makes her final screen appearance as an angel. --Tom
Keogh
