Dragonfly

As head of emergency services for Chicago Memorial Hospital, Dr. Joe Darrow (Kevin Costner) is a respected expert in trauma and triage. But his professional knowledge provides little comfort when tragedy claims the life of his wife. A doctor herself, Emily Darrow (Susana Thompson) was on a medical mercy mission when she died in a bus accident on a remote mountain in Venezuela. Joe had argued against her taking that trip and now can only imagine the worst when he thinks of her final moments.

Six months after her death, Emily’s body has not been recovered and Joe has shut down. His professional demeanor is starting to crack as he numbs himself with marathon 20-hour shifts, seven days a week. His increasingly erratic behavior compels hospital administrator Hugh Campbell (Joe Morton) to order Joe to take time off and pull himself together.

Despite the efforts of caring friends, family and Miriam Belmont (Kathy Bates) next door, Joe remains isolated by unexpressed grief. Reminders of Emily are everywhere, among them images of dragonflies, her personal totem because of a birthmark on her shoulder. Alone in their rambling house, Joe spooked one night when Emily’s treasured dragonfly paperweight crashes from a bedside table to the floor, almost as if it had been pushed.

Joe’s unease increases when he visits Emily’s former patients in the pediatric oncology ward. Joe promised to look in on the kids when Emily left for Venezuela, and as he meets them now, they surprise him with their knowledge about him and his life. To them, he is not a burned-out E.R. doc, but rather "Emily’s Joe".

Joe is particularly struck by Jeffrey, a boy who has survived numerous near-death experiences. He claims he has seen Emily "inside a rainbow" and that she is trying to communicate with Joe. Then another child returns from the brink of death with a remarkably similar story and, like Jeffrey, is obsessed with drawing a mysterious abstract shape as soon as he regains consciousness. That strange shape begins to appear in the other contexts in Joe’s world, as if serving notice that he must look beyond the ordinary for answers to his questions.

Those questions make virtually everyone uncomfortable, except Sister Madeline (Linda Hunt), a Catholic nun who has studied the murky depths of near-death experiences. Dismissed from the hospital after the press sensationalizes her work, she helps Joe see that he’s not going crazy. While others tell him to clean out the closets, empty the drawers and get on with his life, Sister Madeline understands that Joe and Emily may have unfinished business and that neither of them will rest until it is resolved.

With that idea firmly in mind, Joe can finally take the next step in his life, with faith rather than fact as his guide. And that step does nothing less than change his life forever.

"What happens to us after we die is one of the biggest questions facing the human race," director Tom Shadyac says. "When you discuss it with people, you find that almost everyone has had some experience they cannot explain. I was with my mother when she died several years ago and all of us who were in the room together saw her cross over. It was a magical, amazing experience. It’s narrow-minded of us to think that the only reality is what we can see and touch."

Producer Mark Johnson responded viscerally to Dragonfly’s story and message. "In today’s world, where there seems to be empirical evidence for everything, it takes a lot to go out on a ledge and say, ‘I believe in something I can’t begin to describe and it’s as important to me as anything else that’s here in the concrete world."

The journey that Dr. Joe Darrow takes forces him to confront these issues whether he wants to or not. A highly disciplined and rational man, he has committed himself to keeping a promise regardless of where it takes him or what it demands. His quest is emotionally exhausting and ultimately becomes the focus of his life. Finding the right actor to communicate Darrow’s loss, vulnerability and conviction was one of the biggest challenge the filmmakers faced in making Dragonfly.

"Most directors I know feel that 90-95 percent of the work is casting," Shadyac says. "Joe is a man who has lost his soul mate, that relationship we all hope to find our lives. I felt the audience would immediate-ly relate to Joe Darrow’s loss and that’s why I chose Kevin to play him. Kevin is one of those rare actors who can deliver strength and masculinity, but also remain open and vulnerable.

"To feel great loss, you must be able to feel great fullness," he explains. "When I met Kevin and saw the fullness of his life, I knew he could understand what it would be like to face loss, and that he was the right actor for this role."

Executive producer Jim Brubaker was particularly impressed as he watched Costner become Joe. "Kevin got into that character and lived it."

Shadyac also felt an unwavering instinct about casting Kathy Bates, who plays Joe’s next door neighbor, Miriam Belmont. "The first time I read the final draft, I wrote her name in the margin, and I was really fortunate to get her. I must admit, I was a little nervous with her on the set. I’d be thinking, ‘I’m standing here with Kathy Bates....‘ But she puts us all at ease. She and Kevin are wonderful together."

Linda Hunt, an Academy Award winner for her performance in The Year of Living Dangerously, plays a nun who was censored for investigating the near-death experiences of Emily’s patients in Dragonfly. "Sister Madeline is a pivotal character in the film," Shadyac emphasizes, "because Joe is a man of evidence and she helps him see that he hasn’t gone crazy."

The nun’s intelligence and sensitivity also make her vitally important to the audience. "Sister Madeline helps Joe and the audience understand what near-death experiences are," explains producer Mark Johnson. "Linda Hunt brings a beautiful combination of insight, vulnerability and defiance to the character."

Susanna Thompson, who plays Emily, was originally chosen for a different role, but Shadyac felt inspired to make a switch. "I must have an angel looking over my shoulder," he recalls, "because it was only at the last minute that I realized she was the perfect Emily–so strikingly beautiful, yet still intelligent and open."

Thompson found the production rewarding on many levels. "This movie has surrounded me in magic," she declares. "In the Indian totem, the dragonfly is the shatterer of illusions, and in that shattering of illusions, there is great freedom."

Dragonfly opens in Metro Manila theaters on May 22.