While watching just about every Spielberg movie, I’d heard of it before. His entire filmography is filled with classics, and then there’s Always. It isn’t memorably bad like 1941 or Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and at the same time, it just isn’t good. This is in part due to how incredibly generic the entire movie is. It has a genuinely unique premise, but is executed in such a way that makes it incredibly bland. They could have gone deeper into the fire-fighting premise, but rather, they focus on some dumb romantic plot. Richard Dreyfuss’s character loves Holly Berry’s character, but then he dies… oh no! But it doesn’t matter in the end, because he can be a ghost and get some other guy to fall in love with “his girl” to carry on his legacy. It’s flipping dumb. Not to mention the fact that a lot of the acting is really bad, I can mostly attribute this to some of the awful dialogue. Once again, Spielberg tried forcing the comedy quite a bit. Not only did this break any potential chemistry between the characters, but it also made everything feel fake.
At two hours, it’s almost impressive that nothing happens. Sure, the main character dies, but that isn’t until thirty minutes into the film. I can’t even call what happened before that “exposition.” We learn little to nothing about any of the characters other than the fact that they are boring generic archetypes. I can also blame the long run time on the fact that every scene lasts way too long. Spielberg has never had an issue with this, but it is a clear issue in Always. For example, there’s a scene where Holly Berry’s character puts on a dress, and it’s played out like it’s a big deal. All of the boys want to dance with her, so they all have to wash their hands before they can touch her dress. This is an actual scene that happens in the movie, and it takes almost seven minutes. Even though Spielberg’s visual skills are impressive in the movie, it just doesn’t do anything quite as special as any of his other movies. But, one of the largest issues in the movie is its score. Not only was it not John Williams to score this, but there is no score at all. And in a movie that’s supposed to have those exciting action beats and romantic moments, it’s really surprising to hear nothing when an important event is happening.
Overall, it’s pretty clear that I didn’t like it. More than anything, it’s frustrating to see one of Spielberg’s ideas be executed in such a generic way. There was potential here, the premise was unique, some of the shots were interesting, but, sadly, any of that was overpowered by the incredibly generic dialogue, scene work, and even acting. Unless you’re also going through each Spielberg movie, I would definitely not recommend this one. 5.6/10
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