Dragonfly
Review by Clint Morris
 It
was going to happen sooner or later. Kevin Costner would let
go off his egotistical director reigns, and jump on board
the 'special projects' bandwagon.
In essence, he's picked the obligatory Supernatural thriller
that seems to be all the rage, and although his is far from
novel or enormously captivating, Dragonfly is still one of
the better Costner vehicles of recent times.
Tom Shadyac's film is a mixed bag: half spook-fest, half
high-scale adventure. When we first meet Joe (Costner), he's
lost his beloved wife Emily in a bus crash in Venezuela. He
doesn't have much reason to get up in the morning.
Looking in on his former wife's pediatric patients, Joe witnesses
freakish outbursts from some of them. It seems that during
Emily's brief life, she collected dragonflies, and they became
symbolic of the couple's love.
Suddenly, Joe discovers variations of the dragonfly drawing
almost everywhere he looks - on the patients artwork, on his
kitchen floor and in due course, on a map.
Dragonfly is, for the most part, quite a compelling
watch. The children seemingly possessed at the start of the
movie borderlines on the spine chilling.
Equally good is a moment of tension, set in the white waters
of Venezuela - leading up to the twist and the end of the
flick. It's a twist that comes as a surprise, but not without
a price. It's a finale too cheesy to really take too seriously,
unlike some of the film's earlier moments, which indicated
we may have had a winner here.
As Joe, Costner is quite good. He's easily at his best when
under the direction of someone else, and then he doesn't have
an opportunity to go off on over ambitious tangents like he
does with his own projects.
Dragonfly isn't the kind of movie that's going to put him
back atop of the A-list again, but it's a good start.
3 out of 5
Dragonfly
Australian release: Thursday August 8
Cast: Kevin Costner, Kathy Bates, Susanna Thompson, Joe Morton,
Linda Hunt.
Director: Tom Shadyac.
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