"DRAGONFLY"

Life after death is the mystery of mysteries.

Dr. Joe Darrow wants to die, every now and then. He’s felt that way ever since his wife, Dr. Emily Darrow, got swept off a mountainside in the Venezuelan jungle. She was huddled in a crowded school bus with her family of Indian and peasant patients as they fled an onslaught of rebels.

Joe didn’t want her to go there in the first place. It’s no place for a woman, much less a pregnant one.

Now she’s gone forever.

Well, sort of.

Joe can’t forget her, of course, and in many strange and mysterious ways, she won’t let him. In Joe’s mind, you live, you die and that’s it. Mainly, he believes in the here and now, period.

On top of that, Joe cannot grieve. Someone tries to tell him that, but he won’t listen. Don’t blame him. The loss of a loved one cuts deeply and leaves many scars. That is one of life’s cruel truths. It is taking its toll on this good man.

There is some support, but not much.

In the good times, before Emily’s misfortune, Joe was the hospital’s magician in the emergency room. None was better. He could save lives with the best of them—maybe because of his firm belief that after life there is nothing. Emily’s specialty was the care and treatment of children with cancer. Before she left, she made Joe promise to look in on "her kids" if anything happened to her.

Joe keeps his promise. That’s when all heaven breaks loose.

He becomes convinced, through signs, through hearing about the sick kids’ near death experiences and through his gut feelings, that Emily is desperately trying to contact him.

The hospital administrator—a special kind of jerk—wants him gone, at least for a sabbatical.

His associates think he’s lost it.

His faithful neighbor, Miriam, thinks he’d better let go and get on with life.

Emily, it seems, has other plans. That’s were this fascinating movie test one’s faith and one’s own fascination with the hereafter.

Kevin Costner is Joe Darrow and Suzanne Thompson is creditable as his fast disappearing wife, Emily. It would be great to have gotten to know her better. If "Dragonfly" has a weakness, it is the lack of depth. Why did Joe and Emily become doctors? What drove her from the big city to a jungle practice just as their firstborn was on its way? It would have been nice to know more about such devoted and dedicated people. On the other hand, the story does allow us to imagine whatever it is that makes the characters tick and what drives them. That is never all bad.

Oscar winner Linda Hunt gives an impressive, but brief appearance as Sister Madeline, in trouble with her church for snooping around the cancer ward in search of tales of "near death" experiences. Her church is fine with her research, but not so fine with her sharing of her findings with the press. She does do one very important thing. She sets wheels spinning in Joe Darrow’s head that he never knew he had.

"Dragonfly" is a beautiful little story that will set you thinking and maybe even looking—just like Dr. Joe.

At the end of his search, Joe Darrow sums it up this way—"If you have your belief, then that will get you through."