Dragonfly

Kevin Costner. There, I said it.

Now that half of the readers have gone to read something else, let us more open minded, amazingly smart and damned good looking individuals take a closer look at his latest vehicle, Dragonfly.

Kevin plays a doctor whose wife (also a doctor, but for kids) dies in the opening minutes of the story. She’s off in a jungle helping village kids when a bus she’s in slides down a mountainside on a rainy day. Kevin soon starts to experience little freaky incidents which make him believe that his wife is trying to contact him from the dead with messages via her ex-patients and a mysterious little symbol which pops up everywhere he goes.

Naturally, all and sundry think he’s done his gourd when they get wind of his experiences. Kevin’s boss thinks he hasn’t grieved enough after the death, having thrown himself right back into work and wants him to take a vacation, his friends want him to take a vacation, his neighbour wants him to take a vacation, but he doesn’t feel like a vacation right now, thankyou very much.

Then, he feels like a vacation. It’s a good thing he does too, because this is a crucial step to uncovering the significance of the symbol he’s seeing. Kevin follows the supernatural guidance in hope of revealing the message from his wife and discovers...

…get the DVD and find out for yourself!

The thing going through my mind after watching this is Kevin wants this to be his Sixth Sense, his Unbreakable, his return to the big league after years of wallowing in the “poor Kevin, didn’t he used to be good?� basket. He tries hard, he puts in a good performance, he acts all over the place, but the film still comes up short.

BUT!...it’s not his fault. The way I see it, the story also tries hard, but it just doesn’t come up with the killer ending that can support the rest of the film. It’s okay, but... well... I don’t know, maybe just not “HOLY CRAP! I DIDN’T SEE THAT COMING!� enough?

Everything else it does reasonably competently. There are all the little spooky moments when he thinks he’s being contacted. You know something is gonna happen, you wait... then bam! The scare! This occurs a few times. Then there are the “quiet scares� where things happen quietly, but still spookily.

The best bit for me involves a parrot. It has to be at least the second best parrot acting I’ve ever seen. Based upon its performance I’d buy one for a pet, but I’m scared shitless of them now because of this movie.

So, there being enough negativity in the world as it is, I want to be encouraging today and say to Kevin “good try and keep at it. Dragonfly more than makes up for your atrocious accent in Thirteen Days�.

All the good things: a gloriously cinematic 2.35:1 aspect ratio, lovely 16:9 enhanced transfer and clarity as can only be resolved by DVD. No sense wasting time in this review pointing out flaws because it looks spot-on, and looking too hard means you’re not watching the film. What I found interesting was the colouring, as it was either warm and saturated, or cool and desaturated, depending on the location. In settings like the hospital it looks down and depressing, which is apt I suppose. Coupled with dimly lit photography, with darker tones revealing fine grain, the overall look of the picture isn’t one you’d use to tell an upbeat story about basketball-playing dogs, so it suits the story well.

You know how sometimes you don’t even really notice anything specific about an audio track? Well, I take that as a sign that it’s doing everything right. This DD5.1 mix at 448kbps comfortably does the job of bringing the film to life. Clarity is good, set at a nice level and strikes a nice balance across the front for a little openness when needed. The story calls for some enhancements from the score to add some lift to shocks and the like, just as you would expect, and this it does ably without pushing itself too hard, nor being too distracting. The surrounds get called up for action noticeably once or twice, but then spend the rest of their time just sitting back there pumping out nice low ambient information. It’s the low eerie noises which films like this so crave, and they’re all present and accounted for here.

Commentary by Director Tom Shadyac
Don’t listen to any of this until after watching the film for he gives away the ending in the first few minutes. He even warns you that he’ll do it, so believe him. As far as commentaries go, it basically follows the tried and true formula of revealing info about specific scenes, and elaborating on some of the themes in the story. He is also quite candid about numerous scenes he isn’t happy with and would do differently second time around. I applaud this kind of honesty in our filmmakers, as the typical mind-numbingly dull backslapping does not make for an interesting way to pass 100 minutes, regardless of how good the film is. You hear that filmmakers? Tell the truth!

Spotlight on Location
A brief one, at 13 minutes, so it’s not long enough to really delve into too much with any real depth. It probably contains a little over twice the info that the typical six minute featurette contains. Bet you couldn’t have worked that out yourself!

Eight Deleted Scenes
These are good because they show how their extraction improves the film by not drowning with the same messages over and over. Left in, the story definitely would have dragged under the repetitiveness of imagery and ideas.

Betty Eadie Segment
"So who the hell is Betty Eadie?", I bet you’re wondering right now. Well, let me inform you that Betty is none other the woman who wrote the story of Dragonfly after having a near death experience herself. It’s a brief little piece, but interesting I guess in that it shows the truth behind films such as this.

Technically I’d have to say that there’s nothing noticeably worth taking issue with this DVD. Sure, content-wise a better featurette would be good, but it’s not so big a problem to complain about, and the transfer is practically spot-on in all respects.

Storywise, make sure you’re in the mood for it first. If you want a no-brainer with lots of action, noise, laughs and excitement, look elsewhere. If you want a quiet, thoughtful, drawn out story which builds up to a conclusion in a little more relaxed pace that seems a little longer than its 100 minutes would have you believe, then Dragonfly is a nice enough way to see out the night if you don’t set your expectations too high.

It’s not the dog of a film that many critics might have you believe, nor should it be unfairly lambasted just because Kevin Costner is in it. Use the powers of your own judgement and decide for yourself whether Kevin should just pack his bags and go live in the Bahamas, or step up the plate and take another swing.