# Meet Joe Black (1998)

### reviewed by
Thomas Skogestad

    Meet Joe Black (1997)
    A movie review by Thomas Skogestad

(Re-)view January 16, 1999 at Filmteatret, Oslo, Norway http://www.filmweb.no/oslokino/

    Starring:

    Brad Pitt as Death/Joe Black
    Anthony Hopkins as Bill Parrish
    Claire Forlani as Susan Parrish, his daughter
    Marcia Gay Harden as Allison, his daughter
    Jeffrey Tambor as Quince, her husband
    Jake Weber as Drew

Directed by Martin Brest (Scent of a Woman, Midnight Run, Beverly Hills Cop)

Written by Ron Osborn & Jeff Reno and Kevin Wade and Bo Goldman

    Running time: just about three hours (yikes!)

Music by Thomas Newman (nominated for an Oscar for Little Women, The Shawshank Redemption) Cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki (nominated for an Oscar for A Little Oscar)

Production designer: Dante Ferretti (nominated for an Oscar for Kundun, Interview with the Vampire, Age of Innocence, Hamlet, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen -- and probably for this movie)

    Rating: ** out of ****

Expectation rating: About as expected. When I first heard of the film I thought «This sounds interesting!». But the reviews were lukewarm and audience reception not that hot either (but much better than you'd think after reading all these reports about a troubled Universal), but when I got to a chance to see it for free I thought I'd give it a chance.

MPAA rating: PG-13 for an accident scene (Brad Pitt used in a game of car ping-pong), some sexuality (Claire Forlani and Death bonking, about as sexual as Ally McBeal gets) and brief strong language (several shits and hells, one f-word used in a non sexual context).

This Christmas I saw an episode of the Twilight Zone on the Sci-Fi channel. It was called «One for the Angels». In this episode a man i visited by death, is told that his time has come, but is granted one last wish, something the man for a very long time has wanted to do: he wants to make a fabulous sales pitch, «One for the Angels». As long as the wish is unfulfilled he will live; of course this means that the poor man will make another sales pitch again in his life. But Death is cunning, and the man has to out-cun Death.

The Twilight Zone episode makes a point out of that Death is a character, not just a fancy name. In Meet Joe Black Death is just a character, like any other character. Death/Joe Black could just as well have been an imposter blackmailing Bill Parrish, or perhaps he could have been a long lost son, now threatening to reveal a secret, like in the Danish movie The Celebration. The movie never really makes much use of the fact that Joe Black is Death.

One evening Joe Black calls on Bill's door while his whole family is gathered for dinner, he'll be 65 in a few days. In a matter of a few minutes Bill accepts the fact that Death has arrived, but that Death wants Bill to show him some earthly delights for a while. Bill accepts this, just like that, almost no questions asked. Will gets to live as long as Death is interested and intrigued by what he sees. When he has seen enough, he will take Bill away from this world.

This doesn't take long. And no wonder, besides the fact that he has a beautiful daughter to interest Death, Bill does nothing interesting. The movie seems stuck in all the dull moments of Will's life. Board meeting. Board meeting. Yet another dull board meeting. There's no sense of exploration. Did Death know this and still choose to see what humans are like? Why not choose someone else, someone who leads a more adventurous life?

After meeting Death, Bill presents Joe to his family. Joe does not recognize Susan, Bill's daughter, although "they" -- the person Death has inhabited did -- flirted earlier that day in a restaurant. Odd. So he doesn't know anything about the people he picks up and their surroundings? What is his purpose? Does he work for God? Doesn't God tell him anything? Or is a free-lancer, a bit of God work here, a bit of Satan work there? He's an angel, isn't he? In «Der Himmel über Berlin» and «City of Angels» they could read people's minds, Death doesn't seem to able to so in this movie, or only when it suits the script. Such as when he invades Bill's mind with "the voice".

Susan is in love with Drew, an associate of Bill, or so she says. Bill doubts this, because of what she does not say. She does not seem passionate about Drew. And this is perhaps the movie's greatest fault: not what it says, but what it doesn't say. The movie presented here has an intriguing premise, but not much is done with it. Too much time is spent on family dinners and corporate board room meetings.

The biggest problem with the movie is its length. It goes on and on and never seems to end, to quote Roger Ebert: «There are farewells, reflections, confessions, reassurances, reconciliations, partings and surprises». (And it takes about 1 hour 50 minutes before Claire Forlani and Death do you-know-what.) The Twilight Zone episode was under 30 minutes long, and was never dull. Meet Joe Black is a three hour movie, but can only sustain two hours. Maybe be a cut TV or airline version would be to prefer. But the movie is at times oddly fun, such as when Death proclaims «Death and taxes? What an odd pairing».

Bill never inquires into why and how he works; is there life after death? In one scene involving a Jamaican woman (Pitt talks to her in her own dialect, there's even a dialect coach listed in the credits -- there are also two editors listed, and they didn't seem capable of editing much...) where Pitt tells her to close her eyes, and she seems content(?) with what she sees. But that is all. The tag-line for the movie is supposedly «No one can die - while he loves!». So how about showing that? Some comic interludes where the local newscast reports about people jumping from the Brooklyn Bridge or something, but not being able to die? (I believe that the inspiring movie, Death Takes a Holiday, which I have not seen, tackles this subject.)

Later he tells a character that he cheated on an exam. How does he know that? Was he only kidding? So he must be able to find out things about the people with whom he interacts, otherwise he wouldn't have picked up on the conversations between dad and daughter. Yet, he seems very unenlightened on the subject of sex, but when he gets a taste of it, he proclaims that it's better than peanut butter.

What I liked most about the movie was the more technical aspects. I liked looking at, especially the party at the end with all the lights and all the people. (And in particular a scene with Forlani and Pitt where they are surrounded by a whole bunch of guests, but ultimately surrounded by each other -- which is all we see). The score is by Thomas Newman, which I felt was fitting, but is the kind of music I would go out and buy, and listen to it unaccompanied by a movie. Also fascinating is the fact that Bill's New York penthouse apartment, with pool and all, was filmed on a New York sound-stage. That had to cost money! (The absolute highlight, however, is Claire Forlani, and all the wonderful dresses she wears.)

The trailers are not quite the spoiler fests they could have been, perhaps because there's not much to spoil. However, they do contain scenes from the very end of the movie.

    Movies to see instead:

«A Matter of Life and Death» aka «Stairway to Heaven» (1946) by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Defending Your Life» (1991) By Albert Brooks.

Both are movies where a man must plead before a heavenly court, for his life and the person he loves.

    --
    thomas.skogestad@jusstud.uio.no

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