Dragonfly

Part supernatural thriller, part New Age spiritual drama, this picture from the director of Patch Adams can't decide what it wants to be. Costner looks glum as bereaved husband Dr Joe Darrow. His saintly wife Emily was killed in an accident while working for the Red Cross in Venezuela, and to the alarm of friends and colleagues, Joe grows convinced she's trying to contact him from the beyond. The title refers to an insect-shaped birthmark on Emily's shoulder (pointedly shown in flashback) and to her knick-knacks and dragonfly paraphernalia, which spookily begin to hurl themselves off shelves. Emily was, we're told, a kindly, loving soul, but you wouldn't know it from her attempts to contact Joe from the spirit world. Shadyac resorts to the vernacular of the horror genre to create suspense, leading to an unholy blend of Ghost's mawkish pan-dimensional romance and Exorcist-style shock tactics. The 'surprise' ending is as predictable as it is a long time coming.