Dragonfly Review
by Homer Yen (homer_yen AT yahoo DOT com)March 1st, 2002
This "Dragon" Doesn't Quite Fly
"Dragonfly" is a supernatural love story that asks: "if someone dies, are they gone forever?" It's difficult to forget about the ones that you have loved so deeply yet have lost. And when you've developed that unbreakable bond, part of your partner's essence stays with you. They may even reach out to you from the great beyond.
Kevin Costner plays Joe, an ER physician who loves his wife dearly. Costner possesses his usual charm and insouciance. He's definitely at ease in these soft-spoken roles. His wife and soul mate, sadly, perishes in a tragic accident while working for a Red Cross mission. But her body is never recovered. And, he doesn't receive the sense of closure needed to move on with his life.
He channels his stress into his job, working extended shifts for days at a time. This creates great concern among the staff. He hasn't had the proper time to grieve. Worse than that, he starts hearing voices. "J-o-o-o-o-e," they say in a disconcerting waver. First, he hears it from a young boy on the operating table who has flatlined. Then, he hears it again from another man, also lying dead on the operating table. Is someone playing a cruel joke on him? Is he delusional from stress? Or is this a message from beyond?
Up until this point, the film is filled with moments of tenderness and poignancy as Joe tries to come to grips with his loss and the strange signs that he perceives to be receiving. Because all of his closest friends are clinically grounded (they are all doctors, counselors, lawyers), no one believes him. We can relate to his loss and can empathize with our wounded hero. Up to this point, the movie is coasting along. It's not particularly exciting, but it's carefree nonetheless.
However, it hits some bumps once it begins to transform itself into a supernatural thriller. For the middle hour, Joe wanders the halls of his gloomy hospital. The corridors look menacing, the patients look sickly, and a chill wafts through the air. For example, Joe finds it compelling that several children with near-death experiences have similar stories about what they saw and what they heard. And from those conversations, he's convinced that his wife is trying to reach out to him.
He is further shaken by events at his expansive home. His usually silent parrot is suddenly talkative, shadows make the place look creepy, the floorboards creak, ghostly apparitions appear, and other unexplained phenomena occur. Won't these people who are the target of eerie things learn to turn on the lights???
While there are some adrenaline-infused moments, most of the time we watch Kevin Costner looking perplexed. That gets boring. Yet when it's time to take action, Costner is amazingly frumpy in his approach.
The concept of "Dragonfly" seems like a difficult one to execute. It wants to find a balance of being a tender love story and a ghostly tale of the supernatural. And it flip-flops back and forth in a desperate attempt to meld surprise, suspense, and spirituality. A superior film that embodies the spirit of "Dragonfly" is Robin Williams's little-seen but oh-so-admirable "What Dreams May Come" from 1998. That one was far more fanciful and engrossing. The diagnosis for "Dragonfly" is that it suffers somewhat from arrhythmia.
Grade: C+
S: 1 out of 3
L: 0 out of 3
V: 0 out of 3
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
