O Mistério da Libélula

Dragonfly was a good thriller movie and was very well written. Kevin Costner and Kathy Bates were good. The movie did bore you a little at times, but in the ending the story picks up and flows greatly. The movie is about Joe (Kevin Costner), a doctor whose wife dies in a bus accident in a foreign country while working for the Red Cross.When she dies, Joe is devastated, and works overtime at the hospital, and is uncomfortable staying at his own house with his wife's menacing bird. But then, Joe finds that children dying at the hospital have seen his wife when they are near death, like a young boy named Jeffrey who is at the hospital for cancer. Now, Joe must find what his wife wants him to find. This movie was interesting and good. I give Dragonfly a 9 out of 10. :)

Dr. Joe Darrow (Kevin Costner) is a recently widowed doctor. He is grieving due to the death of his pregnant wife in a Red Cross mission in Venezuela. Although being atheist, he began to believe that his dead wife wants to communicate with him, through her young patients in the Pediatrics of a Chicago hospital.

Although using many clichés, the plot is romantic and the story is beautiful. However, the time taken by Joe Darrow to find out the meaning of the symbol is amazingly long for such an obsessed and intelligent character. Further, while his wife tries to contact him through the almost dead persons, the story is OK. But if she had the capacity of telekinesis, why not give him a clear written message? My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Mistério da Libélula" ("The Mystery of the Dragonfly")

I saw Dragonfly many years ago now but it has never left me. I am surprised that of all the movies I have seen that this is one I have found to be unforgettable. Though the budget wasn't huge and the special effects look low-grade by today's standards the acting is good and the message is powerful. It resonated with me on a number of levels. It is also a very interesting story. It doesn't matter whether you believe in the supernatural or psychic abilities or any of that, it is still intriguing. After someone very close to me passed away the movie became even more significant to me. I could really relate to his confusion and the feelings of madness, the anger and questioning of your own sanity. If you are dealing with a tragic loss or asking big questions about life, death and the after-life, this movie might give you something new to ponder, or distract you for a while - in a useful way - from your private pain and grief. Eventually, you might even find it offers some small comfort.

If you check your cynicism at the door, "Dragonfly" is astonishing in its tenderness. It's beautifully shot (Dean Semler of "Dances with Wolves" and "Waterworld") and well-acted. It's a refreshing alternative to the testosterone-driven films like "John Q", "Collateral Damage" and myriad war movies like "We Were Soldiers". Kevin Costner is inexplicably Hollywood's whipping boy but he still manages to make varied, provocative choices in his projects. While I wanted to resist the heart-tug of the ending, I found I simply couldn't. If you let it, "Dragonfly" will take you someplace sweet.

Dragonfly is directed by Tom Shadyac who also co-writes the screenplay with Brandon Camp and Mike Thompson. It stars Kevin Costner, Kathy Bates, Ron Rifkin, Joe Morton and Linda Hunt. Music is scored by John Debney and cinematography by Dean Semler. Plot finds Costner as a grieving doctor who starts to believe he is being contacted by his late wife through patients near death experiences.

"She was my ultimate partner, my best friend and lover. And I miss her beyond belief. I also know I'm never gonna see her again, not ever. And I'm just beginning to understand what that means so intensely that I sometimes wish I didn't have to wake up anymore. And the last thing I need is someone telling me what to feel, or how to feel."

It was badly marketed as a supernatural horror during the publicity prior to its theatrical release, and even now certain DVD covers lend the unsuspecting to thinking it's a nerve jangling experience. That it failed to resonate with critics and many film fans is not surprising, they either didn't get the spook fest they expected, or they simply had no time for a picture high on sentiment. And, without doubt, there are those who simply dislike Costner to the point that even when his peers were lauding him, they were throwing the poisonous darts. Does this mean they are all wrong and Dragonfly is a great picture? No, not at all, it has problems for sure, but really it could only ever appeal to one corner of the film loving market.

Dragonfly is a meditation on grief, where structured as it is, it opens the possibility of something past death offering advice and hope. This of course brings in much sentimentality as the makers hit the viewer with a sledgehammer, reference gravely ill children, young suicides and Costner's grieving. But what's wrong with sentimentality anyway? True, they go too far in the final quarter here where an underwater sequence is as trite as it gets, but some folk want to be manipulated into a teary eyed state, or they want to believe as Fox Mulder does. It's also worth mentioning that this isn't loaded as statement to say "there is" something after death, that the white light thing waits for us all, because it is disputed during a dinner conversation that puts up a valid argument against the near death experience.

Always interesting in themes and played deftly by Costner (who always does great brooding and inner turmoil) and Bates, this is a film worthy of inspection by seekers of the heart tug. Suffice to say, the horror faithful and those that hate the treacle treatment should stay away. 7/10