CONSTANTINE

What to make of a film like Constantine? Taken from the often brilliant and occasionally subversive DC/Vertigo comic book, Hellblazer, the film is a bold mixture of noir, horror and superhero fantasy inspired by everything from The Exorcist to The Matrix. Confused, sprawling and unfocused, one thing Constantine can never be accused of being is boring.

Keanu Reeves stars as John Constantine, a chain-smoking, misanthropic, paranormal investigator who ‘deports’ demons and devils back to hell. Dying from lung cancer and damned for his attempted suicide as a teen, he hopes his crusade against evil will buy him a way back into heaven. As far as heroes go, this one’s got some interesting baggage. Too bad the film abandons an intriguing character for apocalyptic mumbo-jumbo and over-the-top CG effects.

The plot, an uncomfortable jumble of several storylines from the comic book, involves detective Isabel Dodson’s (Rachel Weisz) investigation into the strange suicide of her twin sister. It seems that her sibling’s death is connected to the discovery of the Spear of Destiny (i.e. the spear that killed Jesus) and the birth of the antichrist. Throw in the archangel Gabriel (a brilliant and all-too-brief Tilda Swinton), a trio of expendable sidekicks and Peter Stormare as a scene-stealing Satan and you’ve got enough story ideas for three of four interesting films.

Unfortunately, Constantine sacrifices character development and otherworldly suspense for slick action and computer-generated spectacle. The monsters from hell aren’t very scary and the plot isn’t given any time to breath. For all its talk of faith, damnation and redemption, the film feels like yet another well-oiled product from Hollywood’s entertainment machine.

Where first-time director Francis Lawrence succeeds, however, is in the picture’s stunningly unique visual presentation. Featuring vividly hellish images and an urban landscape choked with atmosphere, Constantine offers up moments of startling imagination. The film’s style is so brash and vibrant that until the final act it’s easy to overlook the half-explained mythology and absurd plot twists. From visions of a fire-consumed L.A. to the foul ambiance of a nightclub where angels and demons mix to its unsettling use of insects, Lawrence and his writers give us a creepy feast of unique sights and sounds. There is no lack of imagination here, just subtlety and restraint.

For many, Constantine will be viewed as a fascinating world unto itself. To fans of the comic book, however, the changes to the story will be a bitter pill to swallow. John Constantine was originally conceived as a wickedly amoral antihero of working class British origins. His forays into the supernatural were grounded by human depravity and instances of banal evil. For every mad angel on the rampage there was a crazed soccer hooligan out to settle a score. News that Keanu Reeves was cast as the title character led to predictable howls of protest.

Unlike many, I find Reeves to be a competent and imminently watchable actor who has a knack for choosing interesting projects. Here, he brings a cool, impersonal manner to his supernatural hero. Still, he’s wrong for the part. In taming the script to its star’s persona the screenwriters have gutted John Constantine of his personality. Instead of the delightfully unrepentant bastard of the Hellblazer series we get a cynical but endearing loner.

Hollywood has a long history of distrusting that its audience will accept a complex or ambivalent protagonist. Coupled to a plotline that boasts of God wager against the Devil for the soul of humanity and this country’s current political climate it probably seemed prudent to portray John Constantine as a saint in sinner’s clothing. It’s times like these that lead one to wonder what kind of film might have been made under the godless secularism of European cinema.