Rencontre avec Joe Black

I first watched meet joe black when it was released. I was in my late 20's and it deeply touched me. Not a movie

Now years have gone by and I am a father of a young lady in her 20's. Now it is one of my all time favorites and watch it once a year. My perspective has deepened (as a father) and my approach is way more sensible.. it is a wonderful movie, not sure I can express how it touches my soul in words. It puts a smile on my face, ache in my heart and fatherhood sentiments like no other movie does (Except for *The Judge* movie).

The most hardest thought and heaviest thought in life is a father's thought of departure from his own kids. With this said, I wish all the fathers out there the best.

Whenever this film is aired, I'm drawn to watch it. The pace, like life, is slow. Some people find this to be a problem. I feel sorry for those people; maybe they've been so saturated by "fast food" films and reality TV that they think that's the way life is supposed to be. Unlike life, the film has no "wasted space". So, while it may seem too long for theatre viewing, it's plenty short for sitting back in an easy chair for three hours and just letting it draw you in--with the excellent dialogue (including the Patois), excellent performances by truly talented actors, and above all the [again] excellent score by Mr. Newman. If you're a romantic not just about love, but also about life, then treat yourself and watch it.

In the recent thriller The Edge, Anthony Hopkins played a wealthy businessman who is transformed by a harrowing encounter with death. In Meet Joe Black, Anthony Hopkins plays Bill, a similar character confronting similar themes, but with a very different twist. Here he meets Death as played by Brad Pitt. Death informs Bill that he wants to see what life is like and he wants Bill to teach him. So long as Death is interested and learning, Bill gets more time. When Bill has to introduce Death to his family at dinner, he fumbles around for a name, eventually coming up with Joe Black.

This is hardly the first film to depict bargains with Death. In Ingmar Bergman's Seventh Seal the allegorical figure of death (complete with shroud) is challenged to a game of chess. His intended victim hopes to forestall the inevitable. Bergman's Death character is reprised in Woody Allen's Love and Death, The Last Action Hero, and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. In Meet Joe Black we are spared the shroud since Death decided to borrow a body from one of his victims. (If you gotta' have one, might as well borrow one that looks like Brad Pitt, I guess.)

The real twist in this film comes in what could be taken as the sub-plot. Death falls in love with Bill's daughter Susan. Susan is involved with Drew, her father's right-hand man in the business world. Drew meanwhile is conniving at some underhanded business deals of his own. The plot takes more than a few twists and turns along the way, but in the end it is neither the plot nor the grand theme (if there is one) that makes the film engaging. Sometimes its the ride itself that makes the journey worthwhile.

Frankly, there are more than a few problems of plausibility here (even after we grant willing suspension of disbelief to the central premise). As one small example, Joe Black is fluent in Jamaican patois, but doesn't know how to tie a tie. The cinematography is good, but not outstanding, and the performances are no more that what we would expect under the circumstances.

Still in all, there were more than a few moments along the way where the audience laughed pretty hard. At one point the audience applauded (in the middle of the movie no less), and I'm sure there were more than a few smiles on more than a few occasions. By the end of the film, director Martin Brest (Scent of a Woman) has given us quite a few simple pleasures along the way. If there is a grand theme to the film, perhaps that is it . . . . it's the simple pleasures that make life good, and in the end, caring is everything.

For a long time I put off watching this, because I have no interest in superficial, teen comedy flicks, as implied by the film's pedestrian title and by the casting of a youthful Brad Pitt. But "Meet Joe Black" is anything but "superficial", and "teen comedy" does not describe this movie at all.

Set in contemporary New York, the film follows a wealthy family whose patriarchal sixty-five year old head, played by Anthony Hopkins, is nearing the end of his life. Enter "Joe Black" (Brad Pitt), a handsome, but enigmatic, young man with an unusual agenda.

This is a thought-provoking movie about mortality and emotional separation. It will appeal to viewers with a reflective and philosophical nature. But the film also has humor, which keeps it from being grim. The pace is slow. There's lots of silence and stillness, entirely appropriate, given the subject matter. Among other things, the film presents the novel idea that a supernatural being can be subject to human emotions, and can make mistakes in judgment resulting from those emotions.

The film is not perfect. The plot is a tad egocentric. There's no reference to the universality and ongoing occurrence of death outside the confines of this family. Also, why now? Why does death choose to engage life in our present world, why not five hundred years ago? Minor script changes could have addressed these issues. The initial meeting between Susan (Claire Forlani) and Joe Black seems a little too convenient, but forms the basis for a plot twist that strengthens the overall story.

The acting is excellent. Anthony Hopkins is, as usual, outstanding. I would not have cast Brad Pitt in the role he plays, but he does a good job. Appropriate for this movie, the acting style for both Pitt and Forlani is one wherein they communicate their characters to viewers largely by means of their eyes, which, as taught by ancient philosophers, are the windows of the soul.

For viewers who liked "The Sixth Sense", another serious film with depth of meaning, I recommend "Meet Joe Black" most highly.

The old Paramount classic Death Takes A Holiday gets a stylish turn of the 21st century remake, Meet Joe Black with Brad Pitt as the grim reaper himself taking a sabbatical to experience what he deprives everyone of, ultimately. The story has been updated from Italy during World War I to America in the new age of information.

The guy who benefits for a short while is multimillionaire media tycoon Anthony Hopkins who is approaching his 65th birthday. He's a widower with two daughters, Marcia Gay Harden who is married to Jeffrey Tambor and Clare Forlani who's in love with love. In fact at the beginning of the film Clare who is a doctor has a chance meeting with Brad Pitt just before he's rundown in a busy New York street and the pale horseman takes over his body.

It's a good thing Hopkins got this reprieve because there's some real nasty double-dealing taking place in his firm. His young right hand man, Jake Weber, is looking to affect a merger with another conglomerate that would ruin all that Hopkins has built in his life. But Weber of course hasn't the slightest idea who Hopkins's new ally is. Let alone the resources he can bring to bear.

Meet Joe Black is a fine film which has a lot to say about the meaning of life and how important it is to use that time on earth in mortal form to become the best you can be. Pitt and Hopkins have very good chemistry and Webber is one of the slimier villains ever put on film.

And see how it all works out for everyone in the end. In fact that's the real message of Meet Joe Black, it all does work out in the end.