Constantine
Stay to the end, after the credits. It’s a brief scene with a good payoff. I actually saw this twice, so I can safely say I enjoyed this movie, but it’s not for everyone.
I had not seen the graphic novel on which this film was based, but the film looks a lot like a very good one. The cinematographer uses great angles and color and shadows and light, and he dances about perspective in a very cool, pretty way. It’s a smarter movie than you might expect, it’s not Matrix 4: Armageddon, though the marketing department wanted you to think so.
What’s great about Constantine is that it fills you in on everything you need to know without weighing you down with padding like backstories, character development, or anything, until the information is immediately needed and relevant. It doesn’t feel patched together, it just feels as-needed, JIT delivery. Instead, we get a feast of visual clues and details which subtract little (as far as I could tell) if you didn’t understand them, but certainly must add a lot if you do. Example: all the bottles of water in John Constantine’s apartment, or Tilda Swinton’s wristbands. Never addressed, explained, but it says a lot about those characters.
For my buck, this finally absolves Keanu Reeves for that horrible Devil’s Advocate (he still owes me money for Matrix 2 and 3). Also, this is flat out the coolest visual representation of the moment of death and entering Hell that I have ever seen. Hell is, designwise, very very cool.
Rachel Weisz resuscitates her smart but willful Mummy persona as a possibly psychic cop-slash-twin-slash-vessel of the - well, I won’t say. But I liked her and I thought they used her well, overall. I say overall because the script’s attempts to manufacture some kind of romantic or sexual tension between Abigail (Weisz) and John (Reeves) are awkward at best, painful at least, and completely superfluous. For the most part, the script was lean and mean and worked well with the limited time and fabulous visuals. Why is Shia LeBeouf required to drive Reeves around? They allude to it, it’s not important, not addressed, but by the end, you decide for yourself.
Let’s talk about casting. Putting bland, thin Neo into the role of a jaded, frustrated, chain-smoking anti-demon vigilante works. He’s lost the “dude” and made himself impossibly world-weary. Weisz’ huge doe eyes and no-nonsense demeanor give her a realistic vulnerability and yet she is still a plausible cop. LeBeouf is a sidekick all the way to the 23rd chromosome and he’s got that little angel face of “I have not seen the horrors of which you speak.” But the reap coups are Djimoun Hounsou as Midnight, Tilda Swinton as a certain archangel, and a familiar, perfect use of Peter Stormare. Oh, and Gavin Russdale and Pruitt Taylor Vince, perfect!
Constantine is a solid, gorgeous piece of filmmaking all around, just what you need to appreciate the chaotic battle of good and evil for the souls of mankind again. The Catholics really do this eternal battle right - they have saints and angels, holy water, demons - yet this is not a religious film. They discuss the vital difference between belief and knowledge, but the movie is a neutral zone, like Midnight’s club. As for the cosmic ledger of works, deeds, faith, and repentance, well, they have that down too. All I can really say is, “Cool.” Check it out.
MPAA Rating R-violence & demonic images
Release date 2/18/05
Time in minutes 121
Director Francis LAwrence
Studio Warner Brothers
