Constantine (View Trailer)

Directed by: Frances Lawrence
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Rachael Weisz, Shia LeBouf, Djimon Hounsou, Tilda Swinton

Not since Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey has Keanu Reeves had such a good time in hell.

I may have a slight advantage or disadvantage in regard to my take on this movie, depending on your point of view. What I mean is that Constantine is based on a popular DC/Vertigo graphic novel series called Hellblazer, which I have never read. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and surprisingly so. Although comic to film conversions have been quite good in the past few years, I had feared this movie would simply be Neo in hell. I wasn’t wholly correct.

Reeves plays the character of John Constantine, a monotone, chain smoking supernatural detective doomed by God to burn to a crisp in hell for a past sin, who tries his damndest (ha,ha) to help in the fight against evil while on earth to perhaps win his way into Heaven. The story finds Constantine helping a young cop (Rachael Weisz) unravel the mystery surrounding her twin sister’s (also Rachael Weisz) suicide. As the story unfolds it takes on a more and more supernatural bent toward your average comic book/movie pseudo-gothic Catholicism-like religious thing that the entertainment industry has created for us to represent a sort of catch-all Judeo-Christian religion chock full of nasty demons and the sort of generic biblical allusions that even your most die hard foaming at the mouth atheist is familiar with.

The film is stylistically consistent with most films in this “comic noir” genre by way of its stark dark to light contrasts and an overall grayish-blue hue. The city is dark and dank, the filthy streets glistening with acid rain, the gutters belching out steam. Pasty skinned people in drab clothing lull about the avenues in the background while our main characters discuss plot topics in hushed tones around cigarettes bobbing in their lips. You can imagine during any given scene between Reeves and Weisz that just a few blocks down The Crow's Eric Draven is avenging his love’s death and just up the street Batman is entangled with a few of the Joker’s henchmen.

Reeves is well suited for the roll of John Constantine, a character of few words and fewer emotions…much like Neo. But unlike Neo, Constantine is a complete jackass. I guess being a chain smoker with terminal lung cancer and knowing you’re going to burn in hell when you die sort of ruffles your feathers a little bit. Weisz’s performance is also well done, although she is not given much to work with, her character being rather uninteresting. One of the best performances comes from Tilda Swinton as the androgynous angel Gabriel.

Overall, I found this to be a well done comic noir film with more than a few engaging characters and good performances and just the right balance of darkness, humor, comic book cheese, and action.


Clif

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