While the themes are supernatural, and there are some genuinely chilling moments. But Dragonfly works best as a romance and Costner carries the film well.
Dragonfly (2002)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:30
Fresh:1
Rotten:29
Average Rating:3.5/10
Consensus: Sappy, dull, and muddled, Dragonfly is too melancholic and cliched to generate much suspense.
Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins
Genre: Dramas
US Box Office: $30,063,805
Synopsis: Lush green aerial photography of the Venezuelan jungle stands in stark contrast to the dark and depressing urbanity of American city life where Joe Darrow (Kevin Costner) works as a doctor in the... Lush green aerial photography of the Venezuelan jungle stands in stark contrast to the dark and depressing urbanity of American city life where Joe Darrow (Kevin Costner) works as a doctor in the emergency room of Chicago Memorial Hospital. His wife, Emily Darrow (Susanna Thompson), was last seen in a rainstorm in Venezuela, where she was on a retreat with the Red Cross offering humanitarian aid. She vanished in a bus accident. There were no survivors and her body was never found. That rich, green, exotic land is left behind as Joe is challenged to persevere through sad, rainy days back home. Joe promised Emily that if anything ever happened to her, he would visit her patients in the oncology ward. Strangely, the children seem to know him, and they say they've seen Emily in their near-death experiences. When Joe begins to believe that Emily is trying to contact him from the other side, his coworkers and his neighbor (a staunch Kathy Bates with a sterling buzz cut) warn him that grief can be a heavy burden to bear. Featuring a handful of frightful moments, an unexpected action sequence, and many emotional dialogues, DRAGONFLY is a pensive movie about coping with death and questioning the possibility of the afterlife. Some of the best scenes of the film involve the hilarious and bizarre Linda Hunt, who plays Sister Madeline, an intense little nun with a bad rep who is plagued by tabloid journalists. [More]
Starring: Kevin Costner, Joe Morton, Ron Rifkin, Linda Hunt
Starring: Kevin Costner, Joe Morton, Ron Rifkin, Linda Hunt, Susanna Thompson, Kathy Bates, Jacob Vargas
Director: Tom Shadyac
Director: Tom Shadyac
Screenwriter: Mike Thompson, David Seltzer, Brandon Camp
Producer: Mark Johnson, Tom Shadyac, Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber
Composer: John Debney
Studio: Universal Pictures
Reviews for Dragonfly
Chances are good that if you loved Ghost or Truly Madly Deeply, you'll at the very least like this fitfully affecting tale of love beyond death and faith beyond reason.
If you're a Costner fan, you'll find Dragonfly mildly diverting, but otherwise you'll come away agreeing with the woman in the audience who said as the lights went up, 'That was so cheesy.'
Probably was hatched by screenwriters watching The Sixth Sense on methamphetamines.
While the themes sound intriguing, the movie lacks the necessary clarity of vision.
As the movie dragged on, I thought I heard a mysterious voice, and felt myself powerfully drawn toward the light -- the light of the exit sign. I have returned from the beyond to warn you: this movie is 90 minutes long, and life is too short.
It would be churlish to begrudge anyone for receiving whatever consolation that can be found in Dragonfly, yet it is impossible to find the film anything but appalling, shamelessly manipulative and contrived, and totally lacking in conviction.
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