I have never really liked Constantine (2005) because Keanu Reeves was not only wrong for the role physically (he looks nothing like John Constantine as typically depicted, but in making the character American as opposed to British the filmmakers changed characteristics that were essential to his nature –being British, like any other group of people anywhere, is more than a physical location. It’s the distillation of the way they look at and interpret the world around them), never mind as an actor he has a fairly limited range.
While in A Dark Song Steve Oram plays Joseph Solomon, an occultist who believes he’s helping a determined woman, Sophia (Christine Walker) establish contact with her dead son.
Oram, physically speaking, is more imposting than Keanu Reeves and looks even less like John Constantine but as a British actor, he feels more like Constantine than Reeves ever could because he comes off as somewhat haughty, which he does for good reason: He has an understanding of the forces they’re dealing with and realizes that they’re not to be trifled with.
And that’s the key to his performance that resonates throughout the movie.
Keanu Reeves feels like he’s acting – which to be fair he is but if it’s obvious that that’s what’s going then somewhere down the line, someone has failed somewhere along the line – and never quite feels comfortable in the role while one is likely to accept Steve Oram’s Joseph Solomon more readily because it never feels like he’s playing a role, and his portrayal of a misanthropic shaman feels lived-in, unlike Reeve’s John Constantine.
SCREENPHILES 