‘Dragonfly’

Starring: Kevin Costner, Susanna Thompson, Kathy Bates

Director: Tom Shadyac

Three stars (out of five)

Death. Such a warm, fuzzy thought. And a personal favorite of Tinsletown’s elite.

Whether it’s Patrick Swayze’s ghost getting messy at the pottery wheel with Demi Moore or Haley Joel Osment helping dead people deal with unfinished business, Hollywood thrives on skeptics and the supernatural.

‘Dragonfly,” the new Kevin Costner movie, is the latest film to tackle the old graveyard shift. It has all the expected ingredients: a tragic and untimely death early in the film, a grief-stricken hero who starts seeing strange things, a throng of people who don’t believe a word he says and a sequence of surprise twists.

Despite its predictability and deathly slow pacing, ‘Dragonfly’ is both romantic and psychologically thrilling.

The film’s ‘grief-stricken hero’ is Dr. Joe Darrow (Costner, last seen on-screen in ‘Thirteen Days’), a respected emergency room physician. He lost his beloved wife, Dr. Emily Darrow (Susanna Thompson, ‘Once and Again’), in a bus accident while she was working for the Red Cross in Venezuela. Her body was never found — a fact that haunts Joe.

Six months later, Joe deals with his grief by working non-stop at the hospital, checking on the pediatric ward where Emily once worked.

From this point on, things start getting strange. One night, a young patient named Jeffrey Reardon (Robert Bailey Jr., ‘Bubble Boy’) goes into cardiac arrest. When he is revived, Jeffrey swears he saw Emily and a strange squiggly symbol.

Back home, Joe begins having odd encounters with dragonflies, Emily’s personal totem due to a birthmark on her back.

Joe is convinced that Emily is trying to reach him, dead or alive. He is aided in his quest for the truth by two women: his next-door neighbor Miriam Belmont (Kathy Bates, ‘The Waterboy’), a law professor who only believes in hard facts, and Sister Madeline (Linda Hunt, ‘Kindergarten Cop’), a nun who has done controversial research about near-death experiences.

Costner did a commendable job as the sorrowful Joe. He maintains a somber mood throughout the film, making it easier for the audience to empathize with him. He brilliantly carries the weirdness of ‘Dragonfly,’ never portraying Joe as a hero, but rather, an average man experiencing bizarre encounters with the unknown. Costner should stick to grounded roles like these in the future.

The supporting cast in ‘Dragonfly’ is impressive, but had little purpose, since most of the movie focuses squarely on Joe. Thompson was radiant as Emily, making Joe’s crushed desperation more plausible. Bates is fine as the sympathetic neighbor, but her talent is wasted on such a minor role. Sister Madeline was complex and interesting, but again, surfaced little throughout the film.

Tom Shadyac, better known for comedies like ‘Ace Ventura: Pet Detective’ and ‘The Nutty Professor,’ directed “Dragonfly.” Based on a script by newcomers Brandon Camp and Mike Thompson, Shadyac’s direction drags.

There are no quick scares in this film, unlike the similar ‘The Mothman Prophecies.’ Joe’s discovery of the truth is slow. At points, it is too slow. After making a big revelation, Joe jumps a plane for Venezuela and we expect some quick explanations, only to end up waiting another half-hour.

Fortunately, Shadyac confines the action to three locations: Joe’s creepy home, the wards in the hospital and the Venezuelan jungle where Emily disappeared. The switch to Venezuela for the conclusion is a bit jarring, making the viewer feel as though they stumbled into a completely different flick.

If you’re a sucker for a twisted ending, “Dragonfly” will keep you guessing all the way.

Christopher Reilly is a sophomore magazine major. E-mail him at passpopcorn@yahoo.com.

Published on February 28, 2002 at 12:00 pm