Meet Joe Black

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Meet Joe Black

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Meet Joe Black

Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Claire Forlani, Jake Weber, Marcia Gay Harden, Jeffrey Tambor

A media mogul acts as a guide to Death, who takes the form of a young man to learn about life on Earth and in the process, fall in love with his guide's daughter.

Id: 10903406

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Meet Joe Black Recent Reviews
  • SirPant
    September 22, 2009
    SirPant
    Boring, wooden and without depth.
  • irisheyes686
    August 23, 2009
    irisheyes686
    Great cast. Such an interesting movie.
  • PvtCaboose91
    April 28, 2009
    PvtCaboose91
    "Careful Bill, you'll give yourself a heart attack and ruin my vacation."


    Running at a hair under three hours, Meet Joe Black is a multifaceted and deeply absorbing character study as well as a ponderous, contemplative exploration of the concept of death. The

    ...( read more)finality of death is the greatest sadness faced by humanity. At any instant, any of us could cease to exist - one's life could conclude without any warning and without the opportunity to farewell those closest to you. It's a morbid and depressing reality, but every single one of us is going to die someday. Meet Joe Black explores a number of questions regarding death. If your life was to terminate in a few short days, how would you spend your final hours on Earth? Would you spend it with loved ones? Pursue the fulfilment of all your lifelong dreams? Watch your favourite movie and listen to your favourite music just once more? Give up, and simply mourn your imminent passing? The protagonist of Meet Joe Black - William Parish (Hopkins) - is faced with these questions and situations. While featuring fine performances and exhibiting excellent filmmaking, the beguiling and seemingly bullet-proof premise is transformed into a pointlessly lengthy, somewhat pretentious bore.


    For Universal pictures, Meet Joe Black probably seemed like a great idea...but it gradually developed into something of a nuisance. This remake of the 1934 film Death Takes a Holiday ran over-budget and its production period was far longer than scheduled. With its overstuffed three-hour runtime, the film received predominantly negative reviews (the general opinion: "glacially slow and uneventful") and audiences generally stayed away (it wasn't an utter box office bomb, though - its budget was only about $90 million, and its approximate worldwide gross was $140 million). Meet Joe Black travels along at a fairly leisurely pace, ultimately unable to sustain a viewer's interest until the end credits. Although certainly not the worst film of 1998, the picture simply has absolutely no reason to drag out a relatively straightforward story to such a colossal, excessive length.


    William Parrish is a multi-millionaire and a successful corporate tycoon on the verge of celebrating his 65th birthday. As he approaches such a considerable milestone in his life, Bill begins to question his mortality. Unfortunately, he's about to suffer a fatal heart attack. During the days leading up to his birthday, Bill begins to hear a mysterious voice in his head. After initially dismissing this as a mere hallucination, he's soon visited by an enigmatic figure - Death personified in human form, otherwise known as Joe Black (Pitt). The Grim Reaper offers the aging businessman an extraordinary proposition: he will grant Bill extra time, and in exchange he must act as Death's earthly guide as Death enjoys a self-appointed holiday. During his vacation Death learns valuable lessons about humanity, as well as learning about love as he develops strong feelings towards Bill's daughter Susan (Forlani). Death additionally learns about trust and integrity, and he realises that William Parish is a much-loved man who has lived a terrific life and has touched a great many other lives. As long as Death remains interested, his vacation will not conclude. But once he tires of life and returns to the "next place", he'll take Bill with him.


    Helmed by Martin Brest, Meet Joe Black is a loose remake of the 1934 motion picture Death Takes a Holiday (itself based on a Broadway production which was an adaptation of an Italian play). After being initially intrigued by the premise of Death Takes a Holiday, Brest spent roughly 15-20 years gradually developing a screenplay with which he felt comfortable. After completing Scent of a Woman in 1992, Brest turned his attention to Meet Joe Black which was at long last released in 1998. This is a labour of love for Brest, who aimed to create a motion picture exploring all the potential of the concept. There are unmistakable divergences between Meet Joe Black and Death Takes a Holiday, primarily in regards to the setting, how the story unfolds, as well as the genre, focus and characters. Brest's movie has been strongly criticised since its 1998 release due to its decidedly slow pacing and slow-moving story, which is considerably amplified by its substantial runtime. This is a two-hour motion picture unnecessarily dragged out to three.


    Meet Joe Black mainly suffers from feeble screenwriting. It seems fifteen to twenty years of script development isn't enough to achieve perfection (interestingly, Sylvester Stallone penned Rocky in a few days...and that script is far more solid). There is far too much narrative flab, for instance. An unnecessary subplot following a patient in hospital is a key example - only spawning lacklustre speeches and tedious scenarios. Inconsistencies abound as well, principally relating to Death's naivety. In human form, Death doesn't possess the expected aura of authority and seems virtually childlike in his lack of familiarity of the simplest human behaviour. Just as a viewer correctly adjusts to and accepts the kind of innocent, untutored person that Death is being depicted as, he suddenly summons the ability to converse in the native tongue of a dying woman in hospital (in the aforesaid unnecessary subplot). He seems unaware of common phrases and customary rules, he doesn't know about peanut butter, and he even has difficulty engaging in conversations...yet he's perfectly capable of concocting a plot about an IRS agent to save Bill's company! It's a challenging premise to swallow, and with these discrepancies it's doubly taxing.


    "Death and Taxes."


    My intention isn't to compare Meet Joe Black with the original Death Takes a Holiday as Brest's film is an independent entity - a further exploration of the fundamental concept. Yet, Meet Joe Black lacks an extremely crucial constituent in its story which was a major feature of Death Takes a Holiday - how the universe would manage with the Grim Reaper taking a vacation. The 1934 picture goes to great pains to illustrate a world with sickness and injury but without death. This fascinating aspect is almost entirely ignored by Meet Joe Black, which wastes the bulk of its duration developing a passionless romance and a corporate takeover scheme. Even the TV shows Family Guy and The Simpsons have explored this idea, albeit with a tongue-in-cheek, comic tone. The only shred of evidence of this concept being explored in Meet Joe Black is with the subplot involving a dying woman. But the dying woman's pain is superficial. She implores Death to "take" her, however this isn't developed to a more satisfying dimension - it remains a vapid inclusion.


    The runtime is once more augmented by the director's tendency to force his actors to insert frequent, lengthy pauses into their dialogue. The dialogue needed to be delivered faster, with lines cut shorter. This wouldn't be as detrimental if the conversations were interesting and well-written, but unfortunately the characters predominantly say sophomoric dialogue rarely of much interest. Scenes hardly ever conclude naturally; Brest usually keeps dialogue running long past the point where the audience has lost interest. The ending is also an utter dud. Not only is this dénouement quite ambiguous, but it also takes far too long. There are farewells, reflections, confessions, reassurances, reconciliations, partings and surprises. Following all this, it's ultimately unsatisfying and hardly worth the prolonged lead-up. Instead of a poignant, powerful conclusion it ends on a boring note; failing to move on an emotional level.


    Regardless of the aforementioned abundance of flaws, there is still much to appreciate in Meet Joe Black. It's perfectly passable and serviceable entertainment, albeit too long. Despite previous criticisms, this isn't an overly bloated or indulgent affair - it's merely in no hurry to examine the lives of a family. It does occasionally feel its three-hour length, but somehow it manages to frequently maintain interest on account of wonderful acting and great filmmaking. Everything looks beautiful - superb cinematography and first-rate production design are perhaps the film's chief strengths. The $90 million budget is employed effectively, creating an expansive mansion in which the characters navigate, as well as multiple other locations. A truly wonderful score by Thomas Newman is a particularly excellent contribution as well. Additionally, the subject matter isn't handled in a clichéd Hollywood fashion (it isn't as hokey as Ghost, for instance).


    "I thought I was going to sneak away tonight. What a glorious night. Every face I see is a memory. It may not be a perfectly perfect memory. Sometimes we had our ups and downs. But we're all together, and you're mine for a night. And I'm going to break precedent and tell you my one candle wish: that you would have a life as lucky as mine, where you can wake up one morning and say, "I don't want anything more." Sixty-five years. Don't they go by in a blink?"


    Brad Pitt's performance as Death will undoubtedly divide opinions. Pitt plays his character with great conviction, and his demeanour is beautifully understated, naïve and unique, as if he's actually experiencing life for the first time and slowly taking in all that surrounds him. To his credit, Pitt comes across as being in the world but not of it. If you can accept the premise, there'll be no trouble accepting the exceptionally engaging Pitt in the title role.
    Anthony Hopkins is officially incapable of delivering a dud performance. This role affords Hopkins a number of scenes where he can convey the humanity and contemplation of a man who has lived a great life, but is forced to come to terms with the fact that it's drawing to a close. Hopkins is strong-willed as William Parrish; he's somewhat comical at times, while intimidating and chilling at other times.

    Claire Forlani shows great promise as Bill's daughter Susan. She's convincing and engaging, despite zero palpable chemistry between her and Brad Pitt. At times Forlani resembles a deer caught in a car's headlights. Jake Weber is suitably contemptible as the treacherous Drew, and he's given adequate support by Marcia Gay Harden and Jeffrey Tambor.


    With better editing and faster pacing, Meet Joe Black could've been a far superior film. A main subplot concerning the takeover of William Parrish's company could have been trimmed and streamlined. The film needed to stay true to its central focus - i.e. the relationships of the protagonists, and the pain the universe would endure with death on holiday. Be that as it may, there are charms to discover despite the film outstaying its welcome by a good forty minutes. Meet Joe Black is certainly worth watching for its penetrating views of mortality, its fascinating characterisation of Death, and its audacious intentions. The definitive version of Death Takes a Holiday is yet to be made, but Meet Joe Black is a solid attempt.


    "Love is passion, obsession, someone you can't live without. If you don't start with that, what are you going to end up with? Fall head over heels. I say find someone you can love like crazy and who'll love you the same way back. And how do you find him? Forget your head and listen to your heart. I'm not hearing any heart. Run the risk, if you get hurt, you'll come back. Because, the truth is there is no sense living your life without this. To make the journey and not fall deeply in love - well, you haven't lived a life at all. You have to try. Because if you haven't tried, you haven't lived."
  • Gx7
    October 29, 2008
    Gx7
    I was harsh in judging this movie when it first came out, everybody seemed like they were all just sooo into Brad Pitt that I never even bothered to watch this straight, atleast until today.

    The story starts of slow, prim and purely conversational and thats what gave me the ide...( read more)a before that it was a dull movie and everybody was just over-exaggerating about it cuz Brad Pitt was in it.

    After 10 years, (Wow.. its been that long?) I finally sat thru the whole movie and even suprised myself that I actually enjoyed it.

    The first quarter of this movie was a bit of a snooze, but they made up for it eventually and had managed to leave its viewers highly strung on emotions at the very last scene.

    A good ending doesnt deserve 5 stars tho >;P
  • jamilyn0276
    September 9, 2008
    jamilyn0276
    I ran across Meet Joe Black, this evening. It is another of those movies that I hold in high regards.
    Meet Joe Black is a story of media tycoon, Bill Parish. Just when he is about the celebrate his 65th birthday, death literally comes knocking on his door, personified as a man wh...( read more)o is very curious to learn about people. The two come to a bargain of sorts, time in exchange for teaching about the wonderment that is human life.
    This movie is a bittersweet tale of fighting for what you think is important, passion, and excepting the grander scale of things.
    Anthony Hopkins is a phenomenal actor. His portrayal of Bill Parrish, was heart felt. A rough and tough around the edges business man, with an inner softness. Brad Pitt's performance as Joe Black, was genius. He brought an Innocent, often enigmatic and funny, fervent side to death. Claire Forlani is an often under rated actress. She brought great compassion to the role of Susan, Bill's daughter. Martin Brest did well in casting the supporting actors in this film, as well. Seasoned performers, such as Marcia Gay Harden and Jeffery Tambor, make this movie an even more enjoyable treat.
    Meet Joe Black is enchanting.
    This film also has one of the most memorable quotes about love...
    "Love is passion, obsession, someone you can't live without. If you don't start with that, what are you going to end up with? Fall head over heels. I say find someone you can love like crazy and who'll love you the same way back. And how do you find him? Forget your head and listen to your heart. I'm not hearing any heart. Run the risk, if you get hurt, you'll come back. Because, the truth is there is no sense living your life without this. To make the journey and not fall deeply in love - well, you haven't lived a life at all. You have to try. Because if you haven't tried, you haven't lived."
    I think I need that one a pillow or in a frame, somewhere in my house. Every time I see Meet Joe Black, I laugh and I have to make sure I have a box of Kleenex handy.
  • lucynechita
    November 9, 2009
    lucynechita
    Brad Pitt is perfect, absolutely perfect as Joe Black!"Meet Joe Black" is truly a movie filled with romance, excitement, joy, happiness, and sorrow.
  • sunidyos
    November 8, 2009
    sunidyos
    No te cierres, nunca se sabe... °Podría abrirse el cielo°
  • ggaviolibeauger
    November 5, 2009
    ggaviolibeauger
    Donnez votre avis (facultatif) ...
  • acknowledge101
    November 4, 2009
    acknowledge101
    pitt and hopkins are merely okay... claire forlani stole the show. or maybe i just have a huge crush on her. a little of both i guess.
  • totalefreiheit
    November 3, 2009
    totalefreiheit
    Peliculon. Muy buena historia.
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