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You know, I really wonder why Hollywood producers keep making movies with Kevin Costner as the star. I know that Dances with Wolves, Bull Durham, and Field of Dreams did well for him, but that was a decade ago. Since then he has made bombs like The Postman, Waterworld, and most recently 3000 Miles to Graceland. Now, Message in a Bottle was OK, but nothing spectacular at the box office. So now we have his latest endeavor, Dragonfly, which is supposed to be a supernatural type of suspense thriller, which is different than Costner’s previous roles. But like most of his films lately, this is nothing spectacular, and instead it seems as though it's just another paycheck for KC. In the film, Costner is Dr. Joe Darrow, a top ER doctor in Chicago that is married to his soul mate Emily (Susanna Thompson, Random Hearts). Emily is also a doctor at the same hospital as Joe. However, the pregnant Dr. Emily has gone off with the Red Cross to tropical Venezuela to help save the world. Very soon into the film we learn that she dies (or does she?) when the bus she is on crashes into a river, of course you can also learn this information by simply watching the trailer for the movie. You also learn from the trailer and movie that dragonflies were Emily’s thing, and now they start appearing everywhere to Joe. Joe’s friends like Dr. Charlie Dickinson (Ron Rifkin, The Majestic) and neighbor friend Miriam Belmont (Kathy Bates from Rat Race & Titanic) just think Joe is having some emotional/mental issues in dealing with Emily’s death. Other friends that he has by choice (vs. work friends and neighbor friends), just want him to go whitewater rafting with them so he can move on. Plus Joe’s boss Hugh Campbell (Joe Morton, Ali) desperately wants Joe to go on a long sabbatical in order to clear his head. Meanwhile, Joe starts seeing his wife’s old patients on the children’s oncology ward where he meets young Michael (Brian J. Davis), a kid whose heart stops all the time. From this child Joe learns that Emily is trying to contact him from the great beyond (or is he just crazy) and provides him with a symbol. All of these Emily related things eventually drive Joe to fly off to Venezuela in an attempt to recover Emily’s body, or find Emily, so that he can move on in life. Mr. Tom Shadyac, who last directed in Patch Adams, directs this film. Dragonfly also features the following people: Kathryn Erbe, Meg Thalken, Linda Hunt, Casey Biggs, Joseph Will, Matt Craven, Paul Terrell Clayton, Jacob Vargas, Paul Gutrecht, Jay Thomas, and many others. I guess Dragonfly is a decent story, and the film even provides a few jumps for the audience. However it just has a poor beginning. I think the trailer is pretty much the first three minutes of the film without any editing (a slight exaggeration), and we need to see more of Emily before her death and not be in such a hurry to kill her off ASAP. The acting was just run of the mill, and nobody really stood out. The main thing I remember about the movie was that the film is just rather dark, especially the hospital where you know that in real life they keep all the rooms well lit (except those little chapels). Of course this isn’t a horrible film, but it certainly could have been much better. To wrap up this selection, I give Dragonfly four couches out of ten. Bye bye.
Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 02:48:14 AM Click Here to get back into frames.
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