Based on the novel Always by Trevor Meldal-Johnsen, this is all about Gregory (Nigel Terry), a writer who believes that he was reincarnated and that his fiancee Maggie (Jaclyn Smith) was once his doomed ballerina love in a past life. What takes this movie from somewhat boring to Cannon magic is Shelley Winters, who plays a Russian psychic named Olga Nabokova, and no one told Ms. Winters not to start at a 3 or 4 and then turn it up, because you can’t crank down a ten, but she never tries to modulate for the entire film and I’m beyond overjoyed at this fact.

Meanwhile, Gregory was once Michael and Brooke was once Ashley and they all died in an inferno and Gregory is writing a novel about his past life instead of actually writing something that his agent thinks can make money, but you know, when you get obsessed, you get obsessed.

This is the only movie that Anthony Richmond, Nicholas Roeg’s cinematographer for Don’t Look Now, ever directed. There’s a good Pino Donaggio score, too. But the story doesn’t really add up and meanders pretty well with only Winters — and Claire Bloom as Maggie’s mother — realizing that this is a Cannon movie and acting for all of us in the cheap seats.