Meet Joe Black

Starring: Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Claire Forlani, Jake Weber, Marcia Gay Harden, Jeffrey Tambor, David S. Howard, June Squibb
Directed by: Martin Brest
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Romance
1998

Times Seen:
Tim: 2

Summary: Death (Brad Pitt) takes the form of a human being and uses a business tycoon (Anthony Hopkins) as his reluctant guide. Death falls in love with his guide's daughter (Claire Forlani), which complicates both their lives.

Review:

Tim: Meet Joe Black is an absolutely fascinating film. There's so much I love about this movie, but there's so many flaws as well. When you add it all up, it's still an impressive achievement, but you also wonder how great Martin Brest's film could have been. Let me just say that despite the flaws (which I'll outline), I'm still a huge fan of this movie. It's rare for me to like a movie as much as I did this one, while also recognizing some major issues.

The film is a remake, but it's a really cool story so I didn't mind them going back to the same well for it. I actually loved the story and the characters very much. The problem is that this movie is an unacceptable 2 hours, 58 minutes long. Truly, I cannot fathom how this happened. This is a three hour movie. That just boggles my mind and it's one of the biggest weaknesses of the film. It might be really good, but it is an absolute bear to sit through. It's totally uncalled for. Significant aspects of this film needed to have been cut. It's so good in so many places, but it's absurdly long. That hurts the whole film. A more focused movie, even 2 hours, 20 minutes or so, would have been much better. This movie is just too long.

The other major complaint I have is the embarrassing performance of Brad Pitt. It's fascinating to watch and it makes you wonder how Brest could have let this happen. Pitt does have a difficult job- he has to play Death, as it has embodied a human being. That's admittedly not easy. And yet, his performance is wooden, childish, and all around just difficult to believe. Pitt's portrayal of this character isn't bad every moment- there's plenty of scenes where he's fine. But man, there are just these moments when you cringe watching him in this role. Those moments sink his performance and greatly hurt the overall movie. When you add it all up, Pitt's performance is disastrous.

What makes that even more frustrating is that across from Pitt, Anthony Hopkins gives one of the finest performances I've seen. He is truly an exceptionally gifted actor and I just adored his performance here. He's authentic, displays a wide variety of emotions in a believable manner, makes you care about this complex, flawed character. He makes you feel. I was mesmerized by his terrific performance, which makes it all the more jarring when Pitt is typically wrecking this right across from him. Hopkins is a major reason why I like this movie so much. He should have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor- it's a quietly brilliant performance. Rounding out the main cast, Claire Forlani might not have been great, but she works in this role. I also enjoyed Marcia Gay Harden and Jeffrey Tambor. The cast here was quite good, outside of Pitt.

I loved that Brest was able to tell a story where we identify with and care about these characters. Pitt's performance was too out there, but I was so interested in the idea of Death visiting a family and learning about humanity. This movie obviously tackles themes of life and death, but it also examines honor, legacy, love, forgiveness, and more. It felt like a very human movie, a movie that was about deeper things than just the story it was telling. Yes, the movie is too long, but there's so many effective moments as we get to know these characters on a deep level. There's real emotion that comes from following this story. I thoroughly enjoyed that aspect of the film.

Meet Joe Black is a really, really good film. I applaud the effort and it makes me happy to watch such an emotional, memorable movie. The one downside is that a few flaws prevent this from being one of the best movies of 1998. It easily could have (and should have) been. Instead, this isn't a great movie, but a flawed, solid one.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 7.5



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