Film Reviews

Dragonfly

• Rating:
• Director: Tom Shadyac
• Starring: Jacob Vargas
• Details: US / 90 mins / (12PG).

Mr Costner attempts to resurrect his career with this sub Sixth Sense chiller that starts out quite promisingly, but descends into the type of overblown hysterics that we've come to associate with poor old Kevin. He plays Joe Darrow, a Chicago doctor, who is mourning his recently deceased wife, Emily. Deciding to throw himself into his work, Darrow returns to the hospital where he and Emily worked. But instead of finding solace there, he begins to experience some strange phenomenon - courtesy of her former child patients - and becomes convinced that Emily is attempting to contact him from the next world. Of course, nobody believes that Joe is telling the truth. Yawn.
Mistaking languid pacing for characterisation, director Tom Shadyac (who incidentally was responsible for that cultural atrocity, Patch Adams) does a woefully insipid job on Dragon Fly. There's no real substance to either the story or his direction, and his lead doesn't help matters. Costner mugs the screen at every available opportunity, and his apparent inability to express anything much, beyond self-pity here doesn't exactly endear him to the audience. Thirteen Days must have been a fluke.

Review by Garreth Murphy