Blockbuster.co.uk - DVD - Rent 'Constantine'

"What if I told you that God and the Devil made a wager, a kind of standing bet for the souls of all mankind?"

John Constantine is going to Hell. "When I was a kid, I could see things. Things humans aren't meant to see." Specifically, angels and demons walking the Earth in human form. Driven to suicide to escape his tormenting visions but saved by meddling doctors, Constantine remains damned for trying to take his own life, hoping in vain to earn salvation by dispatching the Devil's henchmen back to the fiery depths. "Heaven and hell are right here," laments Constantine, "behind every wall, every window, the world behind the world. And we're smack in the middle."

Says screenwriter Frank Cappello, "Here's a guy who has his problems with God. Loathes the Devil. He fights the most hideous demons and yet he cannot escape his own bad habits, like smoking, which is literally killing him. Ultimately he's a man trying to save himself, not the world."

Torn from the pages of DC Comics' adult spookfest Hellblazer, supernatural detective John Constantine may be a distant, duplicitous, misanthropic, grubby, chain-smoking weirdo, but he gets the job done. In big screen form he's capably captured by Matrix star Keanu Reeves, which means that even though the comicbook Constantine is English, his movie counterpart is now American. Better that than insisting Keanu attempt another British accent (see Bram Stoker's Dracula for further details). The good news is that despite this specific alteration and the general Americanisation of the entire project, the character retains his nasty edge and the overall look and feel of Garth Ennis and Jamie Delano's original comicbook creation remains intact.

Together again for the first time since 1996's Chain Reaction, Reeves shares the screen with the ravishing Rachel Weisz, holding her own as a skeptical policewoman determined to get to the bottom of her twin sister's mystery suicide. Even if her quest sends her straight to Hell. Which is the likely outcome when you're working with John Constantine...

"It was one of the best scripts I've ever read," says Keanu Reeves with unrepressed enthusiasm. "It had humor, intelligence, vitality, and I especially appreciated how everything was not obvious. There's mystery and contradiction. Constantine himself has a strong sense of morality yet his ethics are a little blurry. He's trying to right some wrongs but he doesn't always go about it in the nicest way. He's an anti-hero I've never seen before."

"This is a man who walks both sides, light and dark," elaborates producer Lauren Shuler Donner, whose credits include the X-Men and Free Willy movies. "He's not evil. After all, the life he took was his own. But he's not all good either. Deep inside, I think he's just a guy who's had a very hard life and yet he's smart enough to have a sense of humor about it, which is one of the reasons we wanted Keanu Reeves because we knew he could pull that off. He strikes those balances and give us the sense of depth that defines Constantine."

"Ultimately," explains producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, "attitude defines Constantine." "Call it irreverence, fatalism, irony or bravado," adds Reeves, "it's unmistakable. Constantine literally knows how the world works and he doesn't like it." That doesn't mean he has to take it, though. "One of the story's motifs is about knocking the hero down and seeing if he can get back up. Each time, you can feel Constantine thinking, 'OK, right, here we go again.'" A sentiment shared by Reeves throughout the strenuous production. "Throughout the film I got choked, throttled, smashed and generally kicked around. It was really good fun."

A dark and frightening yet often exciting and wickedly funny supernatural thriller, Constantine is a bold first feature from pop video director Francis Lawrence, friend to Will Smith, Aerosmith and Britney Spears. Besides commanding leads Reeves and Weisz, there's a rich vein of co-stars to enjoy, from an increasingly loopy Tilda Swinton as androgynous angel Gabriel, to intensely watchable character actor Peter Stormare as Satan. Stylish and ingenious with an otherworldly atmosphere that draws you into the action and keeps you hooked throughout, Constantine constantly surprises. Like the Addams Family, it's a creepy, kooky, mysterious and spooky, and yes, even ooky movie treat.

Click here for our Keanu Reeves Q&A

Click here for our Gavin Rossdale Q&A

Click here for our Shia LaBeouf Q&A

TM & (C) DC Comics. (C) 2005 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved.

Is it true you met with a psychic for Constantine?

“ Yes. I'd never met a real one before. As part of my research I met people here in LA, where we were filming, psychics, mediums and clairvoyants, and just got them to tell me about their life..I wanted to know about their life stories, like when did they first get this gift. I don't know if I believe in it but I believe that they believe in it so I was interviewing them and asking them questions and they would tell me what it felt like to have a vision, that their palms got sweaty and they had a metallic taste in their mouth and what the visions looked like and what happened in their bodies. I met a woman who had a similar story to Angela, the woman in the film, in that she told me she was very psychic as a child, she was having visions and she told her mum and her mum screamed at her and said 'don't you ever, ever talk about this ever again..' so she stopped talking about it but the visions carried on and then slowly they went away and she became very academic, a very high achiever, went to college and got a degree in something very rational, I think it was maths or physics or something. And she had a massive breakdown when she was about 21 and all the visions started coming back so it was really interesting to hear about how it affects you psychologically if you try and suppress your gift. ”

Did they give you any predictions for your own life?

“ They began to but I didn't want any. I wasn't interested. I wanted to know about them not me. ”

Have you had any experience of the inexplicable?

“ Yeah, just about everything all the time. ”

Something like that's spooky or 'I don't know why I know that..' like déjà vu?

“ Well, everybody gets déjà vu. Unfortunately it can be explained neurologically now in great details so that's a bit of a shame because déjà vu used to feel quite spiritual to me. Nothing supernatural has ever happened to me but I would be very happy if it did. I'm curious about it. I've never seen a ghost but I would like to see one. ”

Do you believe in ghosts or God?

“ I don't know if I believe in ghosts because I've never seen one but I'm not saying no, they may be all around us now. I have no idea. And I have my own sense of what God is but I'm not part of any organised religion. ”

What was going through your head when Keanu was holding you down in the bath tub? I didn't think terribly much acting was required..

“ You are totally right. After about 20 seconds there was no acting. But the director said to Keanu and me 'I want this to be really real.' and frightening. And there was a point where I wasn't acting, it was scary. We had a signal. ”

What between the two of you?

“ Yeah, I think it was that I tapped him on the arm but because I was thrashing around so much it was almost impossible for him to tell what was a thrash and what was a tap. But I trust Keanu so.. ”

Has he changed much over the years?

“ No. We're both a little bit older, both a little bit wiser. But in essence, no. and you would think three Matrix later he could be…who knows what you are going to meet. But he is the same guy and he is actually very down to earth and he is not part of the whole Hollywood hoopla, his private life is very private,he has real friends, he has a real life. He is a real guy and that's what he was when I met him the first time. ”

The director said you wanted to kiss him in the movie?

“ Yes, of course that's true. I try and kiss him all the way through the movie. I think three times I try and get a kiss. He's a loner, what can you do? He's too much of a loner to give me a kiss. ”

What do you like the most about Keanu?

“ He's an oddball but I kind of like guys who are like that. Just a little odd. He's down to earth but he's not just your average guy there's something just a little bit quirky about him and I like that. I think that's what makes him interesting. He is very enigmatic. He is very unknowable. ”

What about the cop training?

“ Yeah, I trained with this guy here in Los Angeles called Peter Wireeater. He is an ex cop and when I went into police stations with him around the city people would like stand up, he was a hero, an absolutely hero, like the super cop of LA but now he trains people and he does personal security for very big movie stars. He is ex Seals. And undercover narcotics, his stories were riveting. My hair, when I had some, was standing on end. He took me out to the firing range, taught me how to shoot a gun, cos I was playing a homicide detective and we went to the morgue which was a new experience for me,. (in the film) I had to identify my sister and that was all part of the research. And I went on driving along at night. No one wants to talk about the morgue! I keep bringing it up. I saw hundreds and hundreds of dead bodies, having never seen one and that's what my character would have to do most days. And it puts you in a whole new relationship, it was intense. ”

How did you feel when you saw Isobelle's body?

“ I don't know because it was quite weird because it was me. It was very bizarre and I don't know how to put it words, it was me – dead. ”

Do you feel naked with your hair as short as it is right now or is it a liberating thing or a scary thing?

“ I cut it for a role which I'm doing right now and it was a lot shorter than this, really short, so it's grown out now. I'm into it. Very low maintenance – in the shower, out the shower out the door. And travelling you know shampoo, conditioner, all the products and now I'm travelling much lighter. ”

What's the role?

“ I'm doing a film called The Fountain opposite Hugh Jackman which is written and directed by Darron Aronofsky, we're doing that in Montreal and I go back tomorrow. There was a time when all movie stars had short hair, Audrey Hepburn, Jean Seberg, right now the hair is in fashion but I don't mind swimming against the tide. Her hair had to be short in this film. It's a pretty gritty movie, it needed to be done. ”

Did you know the comic, Hellblazer?

“ Never heard of it. So I'm representative of the audience that doesn't know it. ”

Back home in Britain were there any comics you did read?

“ The Beano. Dennis the Menace and later on as a teenager sometimes Viz. Very naughty. ”

What's your idea of heaven and hell?

“ For me hell would be a really crowded nightclub where you can't breathe and very loud techno music. ”

And heaven?

“ Heaven is private. ”

What do you like most about the film?

“ I like the fact that it has this incredible computer generated supernatural world. And I get to play a very real character and it's a very meaty role for a girl. ”

Were you a kid who had nightmares after watching horror movies?

“ I saw Gremlins which apparently was a comedy and I was terrible. I'm so easily scared. I can barely watch horror movies. I'm behind the sofa. ”

Rachel Weisz Filmography