Constantine Review
by Bob Bloom (bob AT bloomink DOT com)February 18th, 2005
CONSTANTINE (2005) 2 stars out of 4. Starring Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Tilda Swinton, Shia LaBeouf, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Djimon Hounsou, Gavin Rossdale and Peter Stormare. Based on characters from the DC Comics/Vertigo Hellblazer graphic novels. Story by Kevin Brodbin. Screenplay by Kevin Brodbin and Frank Cappello.
Directed by Francis Lawrence. Rated R. Running time: Approx. 122 mins.
Combine bits of The Exorcist with touches of The Matrix, throw in a lot of Catholic angst and for good measure pepper it with some theological mumbo-jumbo and you have Constantine.
Based on the Hellblazer graphic novels, Constantine is not a bad movie. It offers some interesting and disturbing visuals, including a couple of visits to Hell, a few bits of dead-pan humor and some nifty special effects.
But it just fails to capture the imagination. It is what it is, a cinematic comic book. It does not strive toward any other purpose but to transfer its source material from page to screen.
The premise shows potential: As a child, John Constantine saw things other people didn't — half-breed angels and devils who live on earth in human guise. This unwanted gift so disturbed him that John committed suicide, and for that he was sent to Hell.
Revived against his will two minutes later, he adult Constantine is on a mission to seek salvation by dispatching the devil's demons back to the depths.
Constantine's crusade is not a holy one. He is a bitter, disillusioned man who drinks and smokes too much and is dying of lung cancer. All he wants to do is earn his wings.
The execution of all this fails to inspire, mostly because Constantine is played by Keanu Reeves. Reeves has taken many brickbats for his lack of emotion. He is a competent actor, but not a charismatic one. He normally gives less, even when you think more is required.
And that is the main failure of Constantine. Reeves' monotone, his failure to ignite the screen, to pull the audience in, keeps you at arms length from the story and his character.
This type of character worked well for Reeves in The Matrix, but here it seems he is just repeating himself.
Director Francis Lawrence, working from a script by Kevin Brodbin and Frank Cappello, from a story by Brodbin, creates characters seemingly suffocating from Catholic guilt: Constantine constantly questions God's reasoning for using mankind as a sort of cannon fodder in the very physical war between good and evil; Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz) wants Constantine to prove that her twin sister did not commit suicide, so she can be buried in the church and her soul can go to Heaven.
Among the supporting cast, Tilda Swinton is most interesting as the angel Gabriel, while Peter Stormare's Satan comes across as a fey dilettante. He is more amusing than menacing.
People familiar with the Hellblazer novels will be the true judges of whether the movie adheres to the series. And the film's finale does leave open the possibility of sequels.
But one Constantine is enough for me. The feature feels familiar as if this territory has been covered several times before. According to The American Heritage Dictionary, in Roman Catholicism, purgatory is "a state in which the souls of those who have died in grace must expiate their sins."
An apt metaphor for Constantine; an average film suffering the sin of lack of originality.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, Ind. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or at [email protected].
Bloom's reviews also can be found at the Journal and Courier Web site: www.jconline.com
Other reviews by Bloom can be found at the Rottentomatoes Web site: www.rottentomatoes.com or at the Internet Movie Database Web site:
www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom
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