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Constantine By Harry Forbes Catholic News Service NEW YORK (CNS) -- Think "The Exorcist," "Alien," "The Sixth Sense" "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Matrix" rolled into one, and you have a fair idea of what awaits you in "Constantine" (Warner Bros.). Based on the DC/Vertigo "Hellblazer" series of graphic novels by Jamie Delano and Garth Ennis, this is an intensely violent action film, with a pretentious veneer of religiosity. At its center we have John Constantine (Keanu Reeves), a world-weary, chain-smoking exorcist fighting lung cancer and demonic forces. The first exorcism he performs, on a Latina girl in Los Angeles, makes the Linda Blair scenes in the first "Exorcist" look tame. His method includes capturing the inner demon in a mirror, and throwing it out the window! Meanwhile, there's police detective Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz), deeply troubled about her twin sister, recently confined to a mental institution and a presumed suicide. But Angela knows her sister was a good Catholic and would never have ended her life, so reasons she must have been murdered. When Angela approaches a priest about having a proper funeral for her sister, he says a kind but firm "no." She's heard of Constantine, so she tracks him down, flashes her badge, and states her case. Constantine has just heard that he may only have a short time to live, and is reluctant to help her, but she wins him over. "Heaven and hell are right here," he tells Angela. "Angels and demons can't cross over, but we have half-breeds." These are creatures who look human but are, in fact, in league with God or the devil. Since he was a child, Constantine had the uncanny ability to see them, and when electric shocks and the like failed to "cure" him, he tried to kill himself, which means he's destined for an eternity in hell, whose residents are doomed to be "ripped apart in screaming agony." He hopes that by rooting out demons he'll earn brownie points for heaven, but to his anxious queries -- "Haven't I served him enough?" -- the angel Gabriel (Tilda Swinton in male drag) proffers little hope. Later, Constantine prays to God, "I know I'm not welcome in your house, but I could use some attention." Constantine travels with his trusty apprentice Chaz (Shia LaBeouf), who longs to do more than serve as his driver. There's also a nebbishy occult expert who keeps Constantine armed with the latest demon-busting paraphernalia. And a troubled priest (Pruitt Taylor Vince), a recovered alcoholic who fears a relapse. He wears an amulet around his neck to ward off evil spirits, but when he's persuaded to part with it, big trouble comes his way. Later, Angela carelessly removes her spirit-proof amulet, and probably wishes she hadn't. (It's that kind of movie, where characters do illogical things.) Constantine frequents a private bar, run by a black honcho named Midnite (Djimon Hounsou), who has a sinister sidekick named Balthazaar (Gavin Rossdale), the devil's henchman. None of Constantine's cronies believe it's possible that full-blown demons are manifesting themselves on earth, but Constantine knows better. After being attacked by a real demon on a rainy night -- shown with genuinely creepy special effects -- Constantine begins to intuit that the demons may be ready to break through in their unadulterated awfulness. Constantine tells Angela they had better determine whether Isabel is indeed in hell. With the aid of a cat, and sitting with his feet in a pan of water, he's able to take an excursion to hell, portrayed in the traditional way -- lots of red, frightening creatures and writhing bodies. Later, Angela confesses that her sister was put away because she had the power to see strange things, and Angela can, too, though she's denied it to herself all her life. She asks him if she can test out her spirit-discerning abilities, and Constantine obliges by holding her under the water in a bathtub, a distasteful scene that reads as a brutal drowning, even though it's not. Though gussied up with all sorts of religious mumbo jumbo -- the powers of good versus the forces of evil, self-sacrifice, redemption, the Gabriel character, and a "sword of destiny" (aka the weapon used to pierce Christ on the cross), currently in the hands of a Mexican peasant -- Francis Lawrence's film is basically another formulaic action film riddled with violence. It's also one that's only fitfully interesting since we've seen most of this before, when the gory bits aren't positively wince-inducing. The film has a noirish feel, and beyond the hocus pocus Reeves radiates something of the persona of a world-weary private eye of the Raymond Chandler school. Weisz, with her Brooke Shields' good looks, is OK as the love interest. Swinton's Gabriel is reminiscent of Emma Thompson's angel turn in "Angels in America," but whether she's actually supposed to be a woman is never truly explained. "Only in the time of horror can you find your noblest self," Gabriel informs Constantine, emblematic of the film's poppycock philosophy. This film contains graphic violence with attendant gore, some rough and crude language, and some sacrilegious imagery. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. - - - Forbes is director of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. END Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed. CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250 |
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