The ER of Dreams
If you build it she will come, sorry couldn't resist that altered reference to "Field of Dreams" as "Dragonfly" sees Kevin Costner in dead person territory again. In fact "Dragonfly" sees Kevin Costner in a lot of familiar territory from "The Sixth Sense" to "What Lies Beneath" and as such is a movie which is really about one final OMG didn't see that coming moment. Unfortunately not only is "Dragonfly" less than subtle on its way to that OMG scene it is also less than interesting, trying to be something spooky but never coming close.
Dr. Joe Darrow (Kevin Costner - 3000 Miles To Graceland) struggles to get over his wife's death whilst she was at a medical mission down in South America, it doesn't help that her body was never discovered. But things are worsened by some strange encounters with her young patients at the hospital as after near death experiences they appear to have seen her and are trying to pass on a message to Joe. Unsure whether he is going crazy or not Joe tries to make sense of things but everyone is concerned for his mental stability.
I suppose part of the trouble with "Dragonfly" is that 3 years earlier we had "The Sixth Sense" and so it doesn't take long for you to realise that this is a movie which is going down a similar path. As such for most of the movie you are far too aware of possible clues and with director Tom Shadyac's less than subtle handling of the clues it becomes far too clear as to what is going on.
What this means is that the majority of the movie aims to have you on edge with the creepy side of things, the strange occurrences, the little kids with messages from beyond and so on all which is meant to make us wonder whether or not Joe is going crazy. But again it all so less than subtle and so when something which is meant to frighten us happens it rarely does and is a case of being far too obvious in construct.
Unfortunately it doesn't get any better when it comes to the acting with the movie resting solely on Kevin Costner's shoulders as Joe Darrow. Costner just doesn't convince as someone dealing with the loss of a loved one and spends the movie coming across as cold, just cold. That is until the big climax when things just go stupid and his character turns into something simply unbelievable.
What this all boils down to is that "Dragonfly" is a movie which might have worked if it had a different director and star but as it is it fails.
