Release Date: February 22, 2002
Starring: Kevin Costner, Kathryn Erbe, Kathy Bates, Meg Thalken, Susanna Thompson
Directed by: Tom Shadyac
Written by: David Seltzer, Brandon Camp, Mike Thompson
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (thematic material, mild sensuality)
Along comes another movie riding on the coattails of The Sixth Sense and What Lies Beneath. This supernatural thriller called Dragonfly is merely a ghost of those more successful films, though, and the little suspense it does have is overpowered by the tediousness of Kevin Costner's character and his mission to discover what his deceased wife is trying to tell him. Patch Adams and Ace Ventura director Tom Shadyac was hardly very innovative with this film, and that mixed with the dry story makes it quite unremarkable.
Costner probably thought he had a chance to freshen it up a bit. Too bad he forgot that he hasn't had a truly praiseworthy movie since the days of Field of Dreams and Dances with Wolves. He isn't an incapable actor, but it's clear he doesn't have the ability to turn a mediocre film like Dragonfly into something more powerful.
The story handed to him here has an interesting premise, but he did very little to draw the audience into the tale of his quest to discover his wife's spirit's message. He plays Dr. Joe Darrow, an emergency room doctor who, like all men of science, doesn't believe in heaven or a higher power. Then, after his wife Emily dies in a bus accident while on a humanitarian trip to Venezuela, he starts noticing unusual things: images of squiggly crosses marked on walls and windows; mysterious dragonfly drawings (his wife's favorite insect and the reason for the movie's dull title) falling off tables and shelves; and children in his hospital's pediatric ward telling stories of visions of Emily during near death experiences. She's trying to tell Joe something, and he starts to believe in the afterlife as he trudges his way closer to the answer.
Either people of the afterlife are truly this vague with how they communicate and they get pleasure out of scaring the pants off us mortals, or this is simply the image Hollywood has of all beings of the spirit world. My money's on the latter. Costner's wife might as well have whispered in his ear while he slept, "If you build it, he will come," and he would have been walking around the movie just as blindly. Her message of "Come to the rainbow" makes just as little sense, and it has become more than tiresome for moviegoers to watch countless ghosts lead their loved ones on scavenger hunts instead of simply telling them what the hell it is they want to say. Or maybe it's just a sick joke for those in the hereafter who enjoy watching ignorant humans unscramble completely obscure clues. Whatever the case, it's certainly become burdensome for film audiences.
Director Shadyac tries to throw in the typical supernatural scares, but they're really more to yawn than to jump at. It's pretty obvious what's going to happen when there's a point-of-view shot of Costner slowly approaching the lifeless body of scary-looking boy (that is to say, people who appear to be dead never are in these things). Other moments in Costner's not surprisingly large and spooky house are just as contrived. Had these eerie elements been fresh and more plentiful, the film wouldn't feel like a Lifetime Original Movie. But Costner's character's journey is as unexciting (and even almost as ridiculous at times) as something you'd watch surfing cable channels late at night.
Kevin Costner lends some credibility to it -- he is a big-name star, after all -- and with a finale that almost gives purpose to the whole session of boredom, Dragonfly isn't completely awful. Still, it's almost better to wait until it's on late-night TV before you decide to watch it. That way you can change the channel during the boring parts and return for the exciting conclusion.
all contents © 2002 Andy Zientek