Kevin Costner, Kathy Bates, Joe Morton
Costner continues his reign as the King of Pain in this laughably awful supernatural thriller, playing a glum widower who can't move on after the death of his pregnant wife. The role is almost identical to the morose part he played in 1999's soggy Message in a Bottle, but in Dragonfly the twist is that Costner's Joe Darrow, an emergency room doctor in Chicago, believes his late wife (Susanna Thompson) is trying to contact him from the Great Beyond.
Early in the film the wife is declared dead after a tragic bus accident in Venezuela, but the authorities never find her corpse. When Darrow starts to see dead people, even viewers lacking a sixth sense will know exactly where the movie is headed. The real mystery here is why director Tom Shadyac (Patch Adams) lets Dragonfly drag on at such a poky pace. The first place to cut: the silly scenes involving Darrow and his talking parrot, who also can sense the presence of the dead.
His onscreen charm a fast-receding memory, Costner is a dour sour-ball throughout, as if he had swigged vinegar before every scene. Bates at least shows a sense of humor as a skeptical neighbor. (PG-13)
Bottom Line: Buzz off
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