Such a frustrating disappointment

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Dragonfly is an uneven supernatural thriller starring Kevin Costner who plays a bereaved husband Dr Joe Darrow whose pregnant wife Emily was killed in a bus accident while working for the Red Cross in Venezuela.Joe becomes convinced that somehow his wife is trying to contact him from the other side. This includes a dragonfly paperweight that suddenly rolls off a table and his wife's patients in hospital who are kids being treated for cancer claiming to have been contacted by her.Joe's friends become concerned that he is going mad and his hospital bosses want him to go on extended leave.Director Tom Shadyac resorts to horror film style jolts and suspense. However as Joe's behaviour becomes erratic we just end up thinking much early on why does he just not go to Venezuela to find closure especially as his wife's body was never recovered.Of course eventually that is what Joe does leading to a sentimental and a not very surprising ending.Costner is in his element by putting another maudlin performance but the film becomes too corny and mawkish too often.

*Spoiler-ish (but not really)* Despite some moments of dubious acting from both Kevin Costner (a very short haired??) Kathy Bates, and a completely over the top scene where Costner jumps over a waterfall and drowns (?) in the same bus that his wife did about a year earlier which allows him to see her ghost and get the answers he's seeking. Yes, despite all that I still liked this movie.It's a unique story and was scarier then I was expecting, delving into ghosts and things that go bump in the night. Ultimately I guess its a love story too, as Dr. Joe Darrow, is plagued by what he believes are messages from his wife after she dies while on a red cross mission in Venezuela. Joe begins to wonder if her spirit is trying to contact him and then goes about trying to communicate with her.The ending is a big surprise but it did leave me wondering exactly how "they" were going to get out of South America without any paperwork? 08.13

A lot of people seem to be saying the same thing here. "This movie surprised me. It snuck up on me. It transcended all its clichés." I agree, and there were plenty of clichés to transcend. This film runs against just about everything I believe about the world around me (www.cavemanlogic.com). It's full of supernatural claptrap that I wouldn't go for in a million years. Yet, despite all that, it's a hell of a piece of entertainment. I have no idea why it works so well. It almost embarrasses me to like it this much. I can see all the silliness and all the clichés from a mile away, yet the movie still grabbed me. And, my god, that's a cute baby at the end.

For some reason IMDb declares it necessary that any review contain a minimum of ten lines of commentary. Frankly, this film doesn't deserve the attention that much effort would entail. But allowing this film to go without comment would be unfair to anyone who may potentially waste two hours of their life on this tripe, and really, that's what it is. Kevin Costner has trod this ground before, and in an infinitely better manner, in Field of Dreams. Loss and redemption are themes familiar in a lot of movies, and for good reason. No thinking person has experienced the former without deeply considering the latter. Deep consideration is something that is apparently beyond the people responsible for this, um, effort.A films should have themes, subtext, meaning beyond what the characters say. This doesn't even come close. Hell, the stated message of this movie isn't even much of a message. Simply states, this movie is, in the most succinct way I can state it, unbridled pablum.