Matt Hurt’s review published on Letterboxd:
Always only hits a couple marks when it comes to what makes Spielberg so great. The first act showing Dreyfuss and Hunter's relationship is classic Spielberg sentiment. Honestly, that worked well for me. I bought into the relationship and thought both actors were very charismatic.
But once Always gets into its main storyline (Dreyfuss dies, his ghost comes back to help a young pilot), the movie kind of lost me. Despite the handicap of acting in pseudo-solitude, Dreyfuss does a good job as his character's ghost. But it jumps from him kind of goofing around to more sentimental moments that didn't really work for me.
Not to mention, the character of Ted (who Dreyfuss is guiding) doesn't really have much for going for him in terms of characterization. He's just there to romance Holly Hunter and fly planes but I didn't really get the sense that he had much chemistry with Hunter. The script is problematic for him in any case because the romance that blossoms between him and Hunter's character is pretty much predicated by some of the Dreyfuss quirks he picks up while Dreyfuss is haunting/mentoring him. That part of the movie just didn't work for me.
However, Dreyfuss' journey through the movie carries some emotional weight. He's tormented because he can't let go of Hunter and his performance to that end is strong.
And the film's big climax steers right into that sentimentality. But in order for it to work completely, we need all characters to be well drawn. Although Holly Hunter gives a solid performance, the writing just wasn't there for her. She does things that are more necessitated by the script rather than being character choices that make sense. The decision she makes at the end of the movie makes no sense to me whatsoever and because of that, the tension of the climax was considerably dampened for me.
Always is still a Spielberg movie. So it's better than it would be under the helm of most others. But even his flair for sentimental storytelling can't save this movie from being a misfire for me.