Thoughts on Always

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"Hello, Dorinda. I'm right here. I'm sitting here ... right beside you ... I know you can't see me ... but ... I can see you. I can see your hair, it's almost in your ... "

*Dorinda pushes the hair out of her face*

"That's my girl. You're still my girl, aren't you? I thought so. God, I wish we'd met sooner. I wish we'd met when we were five. I'd have swept you right off your three-wheeler. You've still got a funny face. I can't believe how much I miss you. I miss you ... like it was a thousand years. I remember everything. I remember things I'd forgotten. Like ... from the first second I met you ... when you were sitting alone in that restaurant ... and I looked at you and I said, 'That's her. That's the one.' Do you remember? I walked up to you and I said ..."

"You're the reason I'm here. Ted Baker, Wing 'n' a Prayer."

Life's full of "What if ...?" situations. I've told this story before, but I spent most of the summer of 2003 depressed and anxious. I was getting ready for high school, a new school after eight years with my friends. My whole world was changing and it was scary. It was Inside Out, only I didn't have an assortment of beloved TV personalities to help me cope. What did help was Ghost, which I had never seen until that summer.

Nearly 17 years later, I'm wondering what life would have been like if I had seen Always. Directed by Steven Spielberg, with a script credited to Jerry Belson, it's an adaptation of A Guy Named Joe. I think Always covers some of the same ground as Ghost and possibly does it even better.

"I could just as soon buy it ferrying bibles to Salt Lake City."

"When it is your turn, I don't want to be around."

"I think that's very selfish of you. You should be at the funeral ... crying and looking terrific before you enter the nunnery."

"You wish! I'll have better things to do and better men to do them with."

"Forget about these other men, Dorinda. You'll never be with another man."

"I will, too, and he'll be tall."

"No, Dorinda."

"Why not?"

"You'll never get over me."

"Don't kid yourself."

"No one will ever be as much fun."

"Fun? You think I have fun when you have fun? When you fly into some narrow canyon, you think I'm on the ground going, 'Boy, this is fun.' I could understand how you fly if you were risking yourself for civilization. If you were putting your life on the line for another's life ... anybody's life. I love you, Pete. But I'm not enjoying it. Every time you take off, I wait for the phone to ring. I go to bed sick and I get up scared. I don't like being sick inside all the time. Don't think I like being afraid that you won't come back."

How's this for a set of circumstances? Pete (Richard Dreyfuss), a go for broke aerial firefighter, receives the chance to put his life on the life for best friend Al (John Goodman). Al survives, Pete doesn't ... and this is mere hours after Pete decided to settle down with girlfriend Dorinda (Holly Hunter). Informed by angel Hap (Audrey Hepburn) that he's now required to inspire another, Pete ends up with Ted (Brad Johnson), who just happened to also have had a love at first sight moment with Dorinda. It was like reading a book and almost immediately knowing the ending, Ted said.

When I was a teen, I read an interview with the then-current SNL cast. Tina Fey said she missed when you could have leading ladies like Jill Clayburgh or Teri Garr, beautiful but also looking like they could be your neighbor. I'm having similar thoughts while considering Richard Dreyfuss' and Holly Hunter's time in the A-list. They seem to have been actors first, movie stars second. That's not to deny either of the two's magnetism. I felt it most strongly in Always' best scene, where Pete and Dorinda, despite being unable to hold each other, share a dance to "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes."

"But remember, Pete. You've had your life, for better or for worse. Anything you do for yourself now is a waste of spirit."

There's a lot to admire with Always. Dreyfuss and Hunter are appealing together, Goodman knocks it out of the park as Al and, well, I always do love a love story. On the other hand, this is a very talky movie, Hepburn's presence is wasted on a non-essential character and while Johnson is handsome and charming, Ted doesn't come across as Dorinda's next great love.

Maybe Always should have gone in that direction, making it obvious that Ted will only be a fling for Dorinda. Maybe Dorinda should have ended up with Al. Maybe Ted should have been the one Dorinda was dating first and Pete is the one she's considering starting her new life with. He can still be daring. It gives Dorinda even more reason to be apprehensive. I guess the question is how faithful should Always be to A Guy Called Joe? 

The gloom was lifted fairly soon after I started high school. I liked my classes, liked my opportunities and liked my new friends. One of them was a boy I got along with really well. It was a platonic friendship and I figured I'd get to know him really well for a long time. He left school after freshman year. I guess he moved. In the end, we weren't that close. It just goes to show, you never can tell.

"Now I can tell you everything. You'll have a wonderful life, Dorinda. You won't have any more bad dreams. You'll go to bed happy ... and wake up laughing. You'll be with people. You'll have fun. You'll have everything ... including love. I could never tell you how I felt ... the way I'm telling you now. I'm only a thought, which you just think is your own. But now ... I can say what I've always wanted to say. I love you, Dorinda. I love you. I should have told you that a long time ago ... without any jokes. I should have said the words ... because I know now that ... the love we hold back is the only pain that follows us here. And the memory of that love ... shouldn't make you unhappy for the rest of your life. I hope you can hear me because I know this is true ... from the bottom of my heart ... how good your life is. How good it will be. Can you hear me? Brush your hair away from your face if you can hear me. Brush your hair away from your face one more time so ... I can see your eyes and say goodbye."

Recommended with reservations.

Thoughts:

-- Box Office: Grossing nearly $44 million on a $31 million budget, this opened at No. 5 and came in at No. 29 for 1989.

-- Awards Watch: Nominated for Best Fantasy Film and it's screenplay at the 17th Saturn Awards, this lost to William Peter Blatty's screenplay for The Exorcist III and (insult to injury time) Ghost.

-- Critic's Corner: They just weren't impressed. "Filled with big, sentimental moments ... lacks the intimacy to make any of this very moving," Janet Maslin wrote. Rita Kempsey didn't see genuine chemistry between Hunter and Dreyfuss. "The only thing on fire is the evergreens. ... They just about bust a gasket, they work so hard," Kempsey wrote. Roger Ebert didn't like the new setting, noting the difference between combat and "(running) unnecessary risks while fighting forest fires." He cast the cruelest blow, calling Always "a remake that wasn't remade enough."

-- I love the Spielberg Stare in this movie. It's Pete being blown away by the sight of Dorinda in her "girl clothes." Nice work from costume designer Ellen Mirojnick.

-- Hey, There's ...!: Roberts Blossom, Keith David and Marg Helgenberger.

-- "He's too beautiful. He's too much twisted steel and sex appeal. I can't be with a guy who looks like I won him in a raffle." "A couple of drinks, a couple of laughs ... you'll have time for the short, ugly guys later."

-- Next: Tango & Cash. This project concludes Sunday night, so it's up in the air if I've got 1-2 movies after that.