Constantine

directed by Francis Lawrence 
story by Kevin Brodbin
screenplay by Kevin Brodbin and Frank Cappello
based on the comic book "Hellblazer" by Jamie Delano & Garth Ennis
starring  Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Tilda Swinton, Gavin Rossdale, Peter Stormare, Shia LaBeouf, Djimon Housou

            Constantine begins with the most visual storytelling in mainstream cinema since Rebecca Romijn-Stamos’ sexy heist sequence at the start of Femme Fatale. Keanu Reeves walks into a corroded housing project, walks around a room in which a girl is tied to a bed and then performs an elaborate exorcism involving a mirror and some rope. The logic of the scene is incomprehensible and thankfully we are spared an explanation. The rationale probably falls somewhere close to the science of Ghostbusters, which was easily dismissed by diverting your attention to the witty banter going on. Constantine has no wit, but it looks amazing –possibly amazing enough to ignore the rest of the script’s complications.
        Unlike Femme Fatale’s nearly silent opening, the beginning of Constantine has some dialogue that is easily disregarded. We learn that Reeves’ character is John Constantine and that the exorcised creature is a soldier demon and for some reason its presence in our plain is a very bad sign. The movie continues as an occult noir, shady with exposition and still impressively exhibited. The mystery, we’re loosely told, involves the balance of Heaven and Hell, twins played by Rachel Weisz (becoming less irritating with her American accent) and mythological characters like Gabriel (Swinton) and Balthazar (Rossdale), familiar to even the most casual religious scholars but not likely to the majority of action moviegoers.
        I wouldn’t say that the movie is dependent on familiarity with the bible but there could have been a little more exposition. Although, my guess is that more information would confuse viewers, as the story is already so complicated. My theory is that I could have followed the plot just as well without sound –a compliment to director Francis Lawrence, a veteran of music videos making his feature debut. Title cards could introduce the characters and maybe have a little fun by mentioning trivia about their mythological backgrounds or about the actors’ real genders (Tilda Swinton, it seems, has the body of a very skinny boy).
            I just recently finished reading Edward Jay Epstein’s The Big Picture, a new book that breaks down the economics of today’s Hollywood and how important it is for the studios to pander to the global markets. It would seem that the studios no longer care to satisfy American audiences all that much. Constantine is a very rare example that somewhat benefits from this catering, though. Where most blockbusters attract illiterate foreigners with badly edited and explosively imposing eye-candy action, this motion picture shows rather than shows off.