| The
Review: |
"Dragonfly," for all its attempts
at touching our hearts and our hidden fears, is little more
than director Tom Shadyac's brain-numbing recipe that essentially
tosses elements of "The Sixth Sense," "The Others," "The Haunting,"
and "Angel Eyes" into a blender and hits puree. It's a cross
between a thriller and a human drama, one so confident that
its style and shocks will mask its blatantly unoriginal story,
that in the end, all we feel it cheated out of time and money.
***
It's a shame, given the movie's
promising start. We bear witness to a horrible accident in
a South American country involving an avalanche and a bus
full of people, one of whom is Emily Darrow (Kathryn Erbe),
a devoted doctor whose husband, Joe (Kevin Costner), is left
with his own avalanche of grief over the loss of his wife.
Believing his unwillingness to accept her death is clouding
his good judgment, his superiors ask him to take time off
from his duties, to which he reluctantly agrees. ***
Then one night, he receives a package
Emily had ordered before her death, a crib mobile made up
of glistening dragonflies, revealing to us that A) she was
with child, and B) she had a thing for dragonflies ("her own
personal totem," as Joe describes it). Soon, he begins paying
visits to Emily's former patients still in the hospital, children
who, after near-death experiences, have begun to draw countless
pictures of what looks like a "crucifix made out of Jell-O."
They begin telling Joe of encounters they have had with Emily,
leading him to believe that A) his wife is trying to tell
him something, and B), "she's becoming desperate." ***
About the only thing desperate
in this film is director Shadyac's attempts to conceal his
lack of original material with some cheap shocks and underlying
tension. Sometimes, this is effective, as shown in a scene
where Joe is packing Emily's belongings into a box, including
a paperweight with a dragonfly, and a closet full of dresses.
There is a noise; he goes downstairs, only to hear another
noise and rush back upstairs to find the paperweight on the
table once again, and the clothes hanging in the closet. This
scene shows the promise of a better movie, something that
Shadyac fails to capitalize on. ***
And then we have the more predictable
and hammy scenes and subplots, including his admission that
his pet parrot would greet Emily when she came home every
night (wouldn't you know, that parrot is going to say "Honey,
I'm home!" at some point during the film), and a dead organ
donor who begins speaking Joe's name in Emily's voice. By
the time the question of whether or not Emily is really dead
comes into play, we've been subjected to so many squiggly
drawings, bump-in-the-night scenarios, and close-ups of Costner's
fear-drained face, that it's just one more fly in the ointment.
***
It is Costner, however, who proves
to be the film's biggest disappointment. As Joe, he is required
to carry much of the movie's weight on his shoulders, but
through it all, he can't breathe one bit of believable emotion
into his character. He makes Joe into a stern, at times harsh
character who, at one point, turns away a suicide in favor
of a six-month pregnant dead woman as a result of his grief.
This is followed by his revelation to the suicide patient
that his belief in Heaven is non-existent; though this conversation
is supposed to define his character, it only serves to add
to our disdain for his attitude. ***
Add to this another slap in the
face when Kathy Bates and Linda Hunt find themselves filling
cliché-riddled supporting characters for less than five minutes
of screen time. Bates plays Joe's neighbor, the standard attorney/lesbian/support
provider who spends her time trying to bring Joe back into
reality. Hunt is cast as a nun with a smeared reputation,
whose work with children in near-death situations brings her
to Joe's attention, as well as bringing the standard "she's-trying-to-reach-you"
speech out of retirement. ***
Once the movie reaches its recycled
conclusion, your own premonitions about where the story will
end up will be confirmed, as will your doubts about Costner
ever starring in a credible role again. What begins with promise
quickly spirals into talk of "rainbows" and "tunnels," and
Shadyac's faith that drawings and shadows will be enough to
bring his movie out of the depths of its own ludicrousness.
Don't be too surprised if you find yourself "literally going
buggy" while watching "Dragonfly;" by the time it was all
over, I was reaching for a can of Raid.
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| The
Extras |
The
material that has been included with the DVD should satisfy
fans of the movie. There is the making-of featurette, which
features interviews with many of the crew members talking
about things like life after death, haunting visions, and
yes, the movie and how it was made. This isn't nearly as interesting
as the interview with author Betty Eadie, who describes her
near-death experience with great sensitivity to detail and
sorrow over her returning from it. ***
And then there are the usual Universal add-ons, complete with
terribly unproduced deleted scenes, a trailer, production
notes, cast and crew material, and more. I say, if you like
the movie, the DVD won't disappoint. In fact, I'm surprised
that, given the substantial failure of the film at the box
office, that the studio has chosen to do as much with the
title as they have. Even still, it reeks like bug spray.
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