Good action movie with a nuanced presentation of the nature of faith

Rating: 7/10 (10 February 2005)

I'm never sure what to expect when I go to see a movie like Constantine starring Keanu Reeves and Rachael Weisz. Hollywood, in my estimation, does not understand Christianity and spends a great deal of time and effort not understanding it.
However, looking at something sometimes require a magnification of the greater themes. Stories that illustrate big themes require big characters and big actions, an exaggeration one has to expect. Christianity is all about the fight between good and evil, but the battle for the human heart is more interesting if one uses computer-generated demons and gleaming gold guns in the shape of a crucifix.
I commend the director for not squandering screen time with gratuitous sex, though this is not a movie for kids. I wouldn't recommend anyone younger than 16 seeing it. It is very violent and scary at times.
As an action movie, Constantine is pretty darn good if a bit pedestrian. Reeves in the title role is Reeves as he is in every other title role but in this case it is just what the movie needs. John Constantine is a conflicted man who, through a series of events, becomes something of the James Bond of occult warriors. He dispatches otherworldly creatures who violate the uneasy truce between God and Satan here on earth.
John Constantine is a cynic, and believes that he is doomed to an eternity in Hell, having been there after a suicide attempt in his youth. On his return, he's fruitlessly tried to redeem himself by crushing Hell's minions, but his cynicism toward God blinds him to grace. An interesting twist that  Constantine believes in God, just not in God's goodness. The resolution of Constantine's conflict with God is remarkably sophisticated in light of Hollywood's chronic problems with comprehending faith.
I believe that God's protection is more akin to that enjoyed by Marva Munson in the 2004 version of The Ladykillers than anything proffered from Latin incantations and holy water. Nevertheless, Constantine navigates the logical incongruities of warring against principalities and powers with bullets forged from religious charms well enough to not be distracting. This is ultimately not a movie about the finer points of theology but rather a man at war with himself and God. The liberties are forgivable, in my view because they actually hit just the right note in the end.
I am not a reader of the Hellblazer comic, a D.C./Vertigo imprint on which the movie is based, so I cannot speak to the faithfulness of this adaptation. On its own merit, Constantine is a top-shelf action/occult thriller with great special effects. It illustrates broad themes of good and evil particularly the internal conflicts. There are good thrills and a respectable smattering of laughs. I very much appreciate the relatively thoughtful rendering of the struggles any man would have when facing the world's pain. Watching one of Old Scratch's foul servants get punched in the head with a set of cross-inscribed brass knuckles is just an added bonus.
Tim McNabb
www.fivehundredwords.com