Meet Joe Black

According to the 1998 trend, Meet Joe Black is a definition of worldview exactly like the pair of useless sunglasses in an idyllic worldview. It is quite handily my least favorite film of that year and most likely one of my last few films ever. Director Martin Brest made Scent of a Woman which was entertaining but far too lengthy. Here, he takes everything bad in the blast and shoots it straight over my nose. Starting with the cast, which is composed almost entirely of flabby ‘action’ performances this does portray effectively stunning moments in it.

There are slow films, slow films and there is Meet Joe Black. How Brest manages to stretch out from a two-hour movie to a three-hour one is a scripted affair without having sufficient content to back up such a motion picture. Several obvious techniques are applied to accomplish this. The first, and most obvious, is that the director commands his actors to talk with frequent and long interludes in the middle of all their dialogue. I kept wondering if he believed he was acting with William Shatner. Would you be surprised at the worst being the case? And to add further misery, the Brest NEVER ALLOWS a natural ending to a scene but goes on and on until the audience has lost interest.

In case you didn’t know, Meet Joe Black was based on a 20s play, and also a 1934 movie – Death Takes a Holiday. This is not a literal remake a key subplot has been removed but it poses the question of what if Death went on a temporary hiatus and stayed on earth for a while. Meet Joe Black poses the idea of Death being played by Brad Pitt who falls in love with a beautiful woman and intends on saving a good man’s company. There is no denying, however, that this particular film doesn’t explain the condition of the world while death was never there. Death Takes A Holiday tried its best to show what the world would be like if wasn’t death. Loosely speaking, Joe Black has been reduced to marriage between a romantic and the takeover of a corporation, losing out on everything the character had to offer.

Let us have a look at the movie “Meet Joe Black”. The movie begins with Bill Parrish celebrating his coming 65th birthday with his family. He suffers a heart attack but luckily he is ‘saved’ by death. He neglects Bill again, so Bill offers him a deal. If Joe accepts Bill’s conditions, he’ll hold off ‘taking’ him for longer. But because death has a lot of tasks on hand, his interests should be piqued. Joe has a pretty boy persona, and his appearance dominates the room. However, it makes Susan Parsons, Bill’s daughter, nervous because she is engaged to Drew, who is deeply jealous of and hates Joe. When the movie ends, Susan and Joe have begun dating and Drew is left single in such an epic scenario. Joe’s nature is loving but through Drew, the audience sees a different side. Joe struggles to contain his toddler-like spirit, giving rise to deeper questions.

The love story between Joe and Susan could be described as the high point of “Meet Joe Black”. Susan and Joe’s chemistry appears to be flat with no chemistry and lacking any intensity. Consequently, they find themselves trapped in an array of overly drawn-out romantic moments which in all honesty could be described as more cringy than anything else. There are a few redeeming qualities of this film, but for the most part in my opinion it lacks depth and creativity. Regarding kissing and sex, what Joe believes he has never seen is quite absurd when we align it with death being part of humanity for an eon. Compared to Joe’s character Angel in the movie City of Angels stands out from the rest, especially in regards to Tommy Cage’s portrayal.

All in all, Brad Pitt is not such a bad actor, and in particular, I can commend him for his efforts to develop his craft, but his contribution here is horrible. It is a tragedy that Brest casts Pitt since the combination of his acting with Brest’s terrible directing makes this character a horrid waste of celluloid. Joe Black appears lifeless. While Anthony Hopkins can bring some degree of sophistication to the action, this can only go so far, especially since he was not given such a powerful role. That young lady, who starred in Basquiat and Claire Forlani, is quite pretty and shows some potential, but in a few shots, she seems like a deer in the headlights. Jake Weber is appropriate in the role of the nefarious Drew, while Marcia Gay Harden and Jeffrey Tambor offer satisfactory assistance.

Like Brest’s vivid style, there is always great emotional manipulation but this time the director is unsure how to play it best for the audience. There is a long-winded speech at the end and a great deal of tragic music but instead of drawing the viewer out into an emotional frenzy, it tends to make them feel cold. Maybe it is because there is no connection between the audience and the actors or maybe the movie had already overstayed its welcome. Regardless, the grand finale like everything else in the movie failed to impress. When it comes to Irish epics, Bioware’s Dragon Age franchise has shamelessly set the benchmark a little too high for this one to compete against. To make matters worse the movie is so inaccurate to Irish history that even the Cleary sisters would be embarrassed. This is the most infuriating part of the movie. I’d argue against the accuracy of the blurb as well: it stated that the movie was comical. Not true; even when attempting to lighten the tone, the characters always end up with a grim look.

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