Starring: Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz and Tilda Swinton
Director: Francis Lawrence
Rated: M15+
CONSTANTINE is a stylishly produced fantasy/thriller based on the Hellblazer series of graphic novels.
It boasts lavish film-noir sets, hallucinatory camerawork by the eminent director of photography Rousselot (Interview with the Vampire, Big Fish), state-of-the-art computer graphics, and a deliciously sensuous performance by Tilda Swinton of the archangel Gabriel that looks as if it came directly from Peter Greenway’s The Tempest.
Yet despite these treats, it fails to do justice to the scope of its story and characters.
Constantine has as its anti-hero a cynical psycho-sleuth and exorcist, John Constantine (Keanu Reeves), whose gift is an ability to see the world that exists behind our world.
Not only has he been to hell and back, quite literally, and can testify to its physical reality (Bosch-like devils, brimstone and pitch etc), Constantine can also see “half-breeds”, angels and demons disguised as humans who are sent to our world to influence human behaviour on behalf of their masters, God and the devil.
Tormented by “second sight”, Constantine was driven to take his own life 20 years ago when he was flung into hell for two nightmarish minutes before being given a second chance at redemption.
Since then, unable to follow the traditional path to salvation through faith, Constantine has battled demons and half-breeds to win himself a place in heaven, although he is assured by Gabriel that this ruse will never work.
Constantine is helped in his battle against Satan’s minions by his young apprentice Chas (Shia LaBeouf, I, Robot), a war-weary priest, Fr Hennessy (Pruitt Taylor Vince), and Beeman (Max Baker), who researches religious artefacts for Constantine that have the power to protect, heal and destroy.
Demons multiply when a young policewoman, Angela (Rachel Weisz, The Mummy) enlists demon-buster’s Constantine’s help in investigating the mysterious death of her twin sister.
Although based on comic book characters, Constantine mines a world that embraces traditional Catholic beliefs as well as the film genres of horror/fantasy.
It succeeds well in conveying the apocalyptic forces seeking to breech the divide that separates the material world we live in from the non-material but very real parallel world we have come to call the “after life”.
But beyond this the film fails to satisfy.
First-time director Francis Lawrence, who has made his name with music videos, extracts a dull, uninspired performance from Reeves who seems unaccountably constrained within the straitjacket of his Matrix persona.
Potentially, Constantine is a more complex character who can do more than wear elegant clothes, mouth wisecracks and fight well.
The film is hampered too by the screenplay, which reads well in outline but is too esoteric and complex when translated to the screen.
