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Reviews of Meet Joe Black
Captivating and provacative...but LONG!!
Posted : 9 months, 3 weeks ago on 18 January 2009 08:51
(A review of Meet Joe Black)"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 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.
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).
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.
7.1/10
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No Chemistry
Posted : 2 years, 3 months ago on 22 July 2007 08:31
(A review of Meet Joe Black)Thank goodness for Anthony Hopkins, or else this movie would have been a complete waste of time. Unfortunately he wasn't in every scene. There was no chemistry between Pitt and Forlani, of course with good reason. Brad Pitt's character was just completely unlikable, or at best cold. I can't decide whether to blame it on the script or the director. And it was much too long, and the last half hour just dragged. The cinematography was nice, and watching all the pretty people in pretty settings were nice. But if the story ain't there, then prettiness doesn't help.
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