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Dead on arrival! For the most part, that's what critics pronounced the movie Dragonfly as it spread its wings across the big screen. But wait! I see vital signs. 

The movie tells a tale of a physician (played by Kevin Costner) who loses his pregnant wife in a fatal bus accident. His grief turns to obsession and then to resolve after he witnesses a series of parallel, paranormal accounts revealed to him by his child patients. These children do not hesitate to inform their trusted physician that his pregnant wife, though pronounced dead, is attempting to communicate to him through each of them. Ignoring the endless cautionary utterances solicitously offered by colleagues and concerned friends (not to mention the not-so-subtle insinuations that he was losing his mind and may lose his job) he turns from grieving husband to wide-eyed detective. The grieving-husband/physician-turned-detective holds on to his intuitively established, newly defined role until he reaches the rainbow at the end of his intuitively guided mission. 

Miraculously, under the rainbow he finds his very own living, breathing infant child. The dragonfly, the insect and symbol his wife intimately adopted as her own, is mysteriously etched on the skin of their newborn baby daughter. 

Like the wings of an angel continuously poised to take flight, the iridescent wings of the dragonfly remain outstretched at all times. Neither periods of rest, nor death itself will cause the wings of the dragonfly to be relaxed to a more passive stance. As such, the dragonfly is an apt symbol for this movie. Consistent with the biblical phrase, "Oh, death, where is thy sting?" this movie portrays death as a hopeful beginning, not a final, fatal end. The incorporation of the dragonfly in the movie gives redeeming value to an otherwise less-than-faultless flick. 

Of particular importance is the manner in which the movie metaphorically juxtaposes the symbols of dragonfly and crucifix. Those paranormal experiences of Costner’s child patients all share one thing in common. They see symbols. They express what they have seen via drawings they later share with their inquisitive physician. Each symbol looks the same taking the form of a combination cross and dragonfly. Given the figurative parallel between the unalterably outstretched wings of the dragonfly and the eternally outstretched arms of a loving savior on the cross, the undulating crucifix introduced in the drawings of the child patients in Dragonfly, even if these symbolic connections were not at the forefront of the conscious minds of the movie's production team.

The figurative fusion of the cross and the dragonfly, fortuitous though it may seem, aptly accents the recurrent resurrection motif reflected in Dragonfly. This fused symbol simultaneously serves two functions. First, it is a metaphor for the grieving physician's determination to persevere against a multitude of cynical nay-sayers (even at the risk of losing his esteemed position in the medical community). Second, in a broader, more generalized way, such a fusion may be regarded as metaphor for life after death; joy after grief; and light at the end of a seemingly endless tunnel of darkness. 

From beginning to end, Dragonfly is a story of resurrection. My profession is a proud and noble one, but sadly, in some cases, it has done a grave disservice rather than provide a valuable, therapeutic service. The medical community as a whole has a marked disdain for phenomena that cannot be adequately explained or tested in accordance with conventional scientific methods. Supernatural or parapsychological experiences are all too often dismissed as delusions. The haunting parapsychological perceptions of the main character in the movie, Dragonfly, fly in the face of logic and stingingly slap the face of reason. 

Above all else, the movie, Dragonfly, serves the possibly unintended function of resurrecting a dialogue that should never die, especially in the post 9/11 age, the age of fear. The dialogue concerning life after death can lead us from the age of fear to the age of faith. If the movie Dragonfly serves in no other way, it should serve as a reminder of the power of the resurrection.