DRAGONFLY

US, 2002, 104 minutes, Colour.
Kevin Costner, Kathy Bates, Joe Morton, Ron Rifkin, Linda Hunt, Susanna Thompson.
Directed by Tom Shadyac.

One keeps hoping that Dragonfly will get better but it doesn't. It capitalises on contemporary interest in near-death experiences and the entry of the supernatural into our world. The plot has some interesting features: Kevin Costner is a workaholic doctor in Chicago who does not accompany his pregnant wife on her mission to help the sick in Venezuela; after her death in a bus accident, he keeps noticing her favourite emblem, the dragonfly; some of his patients seems to be speaking for her and communicating messages; he consults a nun (Linda Hunt) who has studied near death experiences; he returns to Venezuela, ignoring all warnings not to go to the indigenous people, to find out if his wife is still alive.

Perhaps the description is more interesting that the actual film. Costner's character has to be morose for most of the film - and he is morose. It is hard to be as sympathetic as we would like to be so that we are not drawn into his quest as much as the film-makers might have hoped. The issues are well worth examining, but the film is often hard going.

1. The mystical tones of the film? Interest in death, near-death experiences, the supernatural? The title and its reference to Joe's wife? Her symbol? The way that it was used throughout the film? The symbols, appearances? Medical, artistic, religious?

2. The Chicago locations, Latin America, the mountains and valleys of Venezuela? The ordinary compared with the exotic? The cities compared with nature, beauty and destructive? The military and the Venezuelan setting, the indigenous people? The atmospheric score?

3. The prologue and the focus on Joe, his wife? Her work? Their ideals, his compromise and not going to Venezuela? Emily going? The later flashbacks, her work, her pregnancy? The military, the bustle, the slide and the crash?

4. Joe, as a character, affected by his wife's death, going in a daze, working too hard? His not believing his wife's death? The addict and willing to let her die - but later going to see her? Her upset at being allowed to live? His working desperately with the accident victims? The danger of his making a mistake? The supervisor and his warning Joe about overwork? The head of the hospital?

5. The changing experiences, the light, the image of the dragonfly, the voices? The people as mediums for his wife's voice? The young boy in the hospital, Joe working with him, the voice? The coma?

6. The neighbour, her friendliness with Joe, her relationships, her matter-of-factness, down-to-earth comments about death?

7. His being introduced to the nun, their friendliness, her work, near-death experiences, her exploration with him, her writings? The discussions and the effect on Joe?

8. His decision to go to Venezuela, impetuous? His feeling the need to go, the voice, the vision? His arrival, doing the deal with the pilot? The plane, the dangers, the pilot's warning, not to go near the tribe, Joe's American pigheadedness, his going, meeting the members of the tribe, their wariness? The reconstruction of the situation?

9. His trying to understand what happened to his wife, his going into the water, his own almost drowning, the light, the vision, the knowledge? Thinking his wife was saved, going to the village, discovering his child and taking it home?

10. The mystical experience for the survival of the child, its mother helping from beyond this earth, a presence for her husband, his new life in being a father?