Dragonfly, Kevin Costner's newest film, tells the story of an emergency room doctor who believes that he is being contacted by his dead wife through her patients' near-death experiences.

The drama begins from the film's opening scene. A thirty-second introduction sets up the relationship between Dr. Joe Darrow (Costner) and his wife, Emily (Susanna Thompson).

Emily and Joe have a phone conversation during which they repeatedly scream each other's names, and then she dies.

Emily was pregnant with the couple's first child and was helping children in Venezuela at the time of her death. Emily was killed in a bus accident during a torrential downpour. Her body is never found and this haunts Joe.

The audience immediately knows the focus of the film is Emily's death. Joe and Emily's relationship is not established for the audience except through small glimpses of the Darrows' marriage seen through flashbacks that Joe has.

Soon after her death, Joe believes Emily is trying to contact him. Weird coincidences start to occur and when Joe visits Emily's patients, he believes she is sending him a message through them.

In short, I had a hard time buying the film's storyline. The premonitions, visions and coincidences, for the most part, were pretty lame.

The film is billed as a mix of a thriller, mystery and drama. I will admit that Joe had some bad light bulb karma, as every time he entered a room, the light bulb burned out. However, why this occurred was the film's biggest mystery, and it is never solved in the movie.

The film is dark, and shadowy with non-stop rain. This overly dramatic setting didn't help the plausibility of the story. Instead, it hindered it.

Costner's acting was fair; I've seen him do much better. Kathy Bates was also in the film as Joe's lesbian neighbor who is a recent widow. Bates is an excellent actress but Dragonfly really didn't work for her. Bates can do one hell of a character study; her performance in Fried Green Tomatoes proves this. Unfortunately, her character in Dragonfly was underdeveloped and lacked depth; she seemed to have no purpose.

Tom Shadyac directed the film. Shadyac's films include Patch Adams, The Nutty Professor and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Dragonfly had the same feel as Patch Adams, but with worse acting. At the end of the movie, the fable-like tale twists and all are happy. A fuzzy, warm feeling takes over the audience, even though the story is totally implausible.

I didn't really enjoy Dragonfly. I just couldn't get past the cookie-cutter thriller formula and the lame story.

However when I left the theater, many audience members disagreed. I overheard them saying they liked the movie. I think they got sucked in by the surprising, yet cheesy ending.