Lush green aerial photography
of the Venezuelan jungle stands in stark contrast
to the dark and depressing urbanity of American
city life where Joe Darrow (Kevin
Costner) works as a doctor in the emergency
room of Chicago Memorial Hospital. His wife, Emily
Darrow (Susanna Thompson),
was last seen in a rainstorm in Venezuela, where
she was on a retreat with the Red Cross offering
humanitarian aid. She vanished in a bus accident.
There were no survivors and her body was never
found. That rich, green, exotic land is left behind
as Joe is challenged to persevere through sad,
rainy days back home. Joe promised Emily that
if anything ever happened to her, he would visit
her patients in the oncology ward. Strangely,
the children seem to know him, and they say they've
seen Emily in their near-death experiences. When
Joe begins to believe that Emily is trying to
contact him from the other side, his coworkers
and his neighbor (a staunch
Kathy Bates with a sterling buzz cut) warn
him that grief can be a heavy burden to bear.
Featuring a handful of frightful moments, an unexpected
action sequence, and many emotional dialogues,
DRAGONFLY is a pensive movie about coping with
death and questioning the possibility of the afterlife.
Some of the best scenes of the film involve the
hilarious and bizarre Linda Hunt, who plays Sister
Madeline, an intense little nun with a bad rep
who is plagued by tabloid journalists. |