Dr. Joe Darrow: Kevin Costner	Dr. Emily Darrow: Susanna Thompson
Neighbor: Kathy Bates	Hospital Administrator: Joe Morton
Director: Tom Shadyac

30 Second Bottom Line: A recently widowed doctor begins receiving messages from his dead wife through young patients recovering from near death experiences.

Story Line: Dr. Emily Darrow (Susanna Thompson), via telephone, anxiously informs her husband, Dr. Joe Darrow (Kevin Costner) that her Red Cross operation in Venezuela is being evacuated. There was heated debate over her volunteering for the mission since she was pregnant. Turns out there was reason for concern, as we watch her bus, loaded with children and villagers, careen off a mud slick road into a river due to a rock slide. Her body was never found.

Devastated by his loss, Joe is off course on all fronts. He has constant run-ins at the hospital with patients and staff, and he's told to take some time off by the hospital administrator, played with just a touch of understanding by Joe Morton. At home Joe feels the presence of Emily and apparently some physical evidence bears this out. Emily had an affinity for the dragonfly, collecting them and even having a hereditary birthmark in the shape of one. The uncertainty of just what is going on in the dark of night and the fear factor is leveraged with an errant parrot in residence and an obliging and humorous, lesbian neighbor, played smartly by Kathy Bates.

In order to feel closer to her, Joe decides to look in on Emily's pediatric cancer patients, as he promised. These children are in the end stages of the disease, so most are either deceased or have been released to go home, presumably to die. He encounters a few who are in crisis and have had recent near death experiences. "In the tunnel" they have seen Emily and she has a message for Joe, evidently hidden in the detail of the same drawing they all render.

Tell Me More About It: Inevitable comparisons will be made with this film and The Sixth Sense, as well as The Mothman Prophecies. The historic house Joe and Emily live in even looks like the house in Mothman, with a sunnier disposition. For my money neither Mothman nor Dragonfly stands a gnat's chance against Sixth Sense.

Robert Bailey, Jr. as one of Emily's young patients, describes Joe's presence in his hospital room as he hovered near death and he does a fine job of shaking Joe's reluctance to believe what waits on the other side.

Telegraphing the action takes on huge proportions in this film. You've got it figured out nearly to the last detail within the first fifteen minutes. Even fans of Kevin Costner¾there are still some out there I assume¾will be disappointed with his colorless performance. Given the nature of Joe's call to action, Costner sparks no rainbows here.

Kevin Costner: 3,000 Miles to Graceland	Kathy Bates: Rat Race
Susanna Thompson: Random Hearts	Joe Morton: Ali
Tom Shadyac: Patch Adams