[5]
I love Keanu Reeves. I love Rachel Weisz. I generally love stories about angels and demons. I love the visual style and cinematography, and the directing’s pretty good, too. So why don’t I love Constantine? After a third viewing in twenty years, I’m still trying to figure out why this movie simply fails to grab me.
I think part of my apathy is because the story is so convoluted. Based on a comic book, Constantine takes place in a world where half-breed angel/humans and half-breed demon/humans have to stay in some sort of balance as they whisper into humanity’s ears for influence. And whenever a half-breed breaks the rules, John Constantine (Reeves) has to kill them. John is a human with the supernatural ability to see and work with the half-breeds, but he really doesn’t like his job much. He’s a cranky chain-smoking curmudgeon, mostly because he knows he’s dying from lung cancer, and since he tried to commit suicide as a teenager, he knows he’s going to Hell. I guess I’d be pretty cranky, too.
Rachel Weisz plays an L.A. cop who also has supernatural gifts. Her twin sister has recently died under mysterious circumstances, and she ends up teaming up with Reeves to figure shit out. The main plot, which surprisingly gets very little screen time and feels almost tertiary to the narrative until the last twenty minutes, has something to do with a Spear of Destiny that apparently killed Jesus. And creepy-ass Tilda Swinton, as half-breed angel/human Gabriel, wants the spear to bring the son of Satan into the real world. So Reeves and Weisz are trying to stop that from happening. I think that’s basically what Constantine‘s about.
Constantine has a unique problem in that it’s hard to know how much dramatic weight to apply to any given scenario. The opening sequence has always been my favorite — and the only part of the movie that sticks with me at all. It features Reeves performing an exorcism on a young girl, trapping her demon in a mirror, and then breaking the mirror to vanquish the demon. It’s a very cool scene with high, compelling stakes — a little girl’s life hangs in the balance. Unfortunately, none of the rest of the movie has stakes like that. I never care about John Constantine as a character because he’s a grouch who hates everyone. Weisz’s character is similarly sullen and morose throughout the story. And if the world’s truly in danger from whatever creepy-ass Tilda Swinton’s trying to do, that threat only ever feels vague and generic.
Even though the movie never coalesces or fully engages my interest, I still somewhat appreciate it on a conceptual level. There’s also a lot of good craftsmanship on display. The supporting cast features strong turns from Shia LaBeouf as Keanu’s chauffeur and Peter Stormare as Old Scratch himself, Satan. These two bring comedy to the proceedings, and the movie needs every ounce of comedy it can get. Philippe Rousselot’s cinematography is colorful and high-contrast, mercifully bucking the trend toward lazy, monochromatic color-grading. First-time director Francis Lawrence shows visual flare and a knack for staging action.
Maybe I’ll watch Constantine a fourth time ten years from now. Maybe then it will click.
With Djimon Hounsou, Max Baker, Pruitt Taylor Vince.