Steven Spielberg
Always

"Inspiration: it is the divine breath, the one on which everyone relies. They desire it, pray for it. And very often, just when they need it most, they get it: it is infused into them. Now it's your turn to give it back."

"Always", released in 1989, is not one of Spielberg's fundamental works, those ended in the early '80s, it is not a great film, in fact, in its romantic tones, it too often touches on mushiness and almost becomes disturbing, and it appears too contrived in its effort to convey good feelings. The plot is based on a remake of "A Guy Named Joe,” so dear to the director. Pete, an overly self-assured and daring firefighting pilot (Richard Dreyfuss), dies saving his friend (John Goodman) during a mission and will return as a pure spirit to help a young, inexperienced but talented pilot, who, however, will fall in love with his girlfriend Dorinda (Holly Hunter), putting Pete's new role to the test.

So, one can understand what the main themes of the film will be: friendship, the sacrifice of one's life as an ultimate act of love, and Dorinda's difficult return to love. The plot, therefore, does not offer great critical insights, everything is shot with good cinematography by Spielberg, especially the initial scenes of the fire, but the rest is truly disappointing. The progression of the plot in the central part is too slow, a sore point that greatly limits the film; the personalities of the protagonists are just hinted at, too stylized, Al's (Goodman) extroverted and superficial character is almost irritating, Dorinda is slightly better, while Pete's free-spirited and non-conformist nature is exaggerated. But there is a reason to watch this film, or at least a small part of it: Audrey Hepburn's last cinematic appearance. She needs just over ten minutes, just a handful of minutes alone with Richard Dreyfuss to touch the viewer and lead them into a magical dimension. If before the film was disarmingly flat, the arrival of the angel Hap (Audrey) brings a sense of calm and poetry; Spielberg manages to enhance this marginal role with a wonderful setting. Hap appears to Pete in the forest, still immersed in the heat of the fire, in a small green corner left intact by the flames. It is here that the pilot understands he is dead and has a new task that Hap illustrates with the line I quoted as the incipit of the review.

Hepburn's last film had been "They All Laughed" by Peter Bogdanovich in 1981. Now, she faces a figure that is pure spirit. What takes your breath away is that in Hap's smile, Audrey manages to combine the many faces she has given us in her career: the perky face of Princess Ann, the sad and mysterious one of Holly, the naïve one of Sabrina, the strong one of Suzy. Dressed entirely in white, she enchants the viewer with her elegant movements and the calm tone of her voice, a final appearance that has entered the hearts of all of us.