directed by : martin brest written by : ron osborn , jeff reno , kevin wade and bo goldman ( based on the play " death takes a holiday " by alberto casella cast : anthony hopkins , brad pitt , claire forlani , jeffrey tambor mpaa : rated pg-13 for an accident scene , some sexuality and brief strong language . runtime : usa : 178 reviewed by : alex ioshpe ( c ) 1998<hr> i have never been so confused after watching a movie . " meet joe black " is probably one of the most visually satisfying films of this year , with a cinematography , music and cast that will dazzle most of us . at the same time it is probably the most boring and ridiculous experience hat you will have this season . at first you marvel at the elegant direction , graceful cinematography and sensual musical score . then you'll wait for something to happen for half an hour , but when you finally understand what's going on , you'll wonder what are actors such as anthony hopkins , brad pitt and claire forlani are doing in a film like this ? the script is simply a silly and unresolved story , which is artificially stretched into a three hour long motion picture . it feels like an eternity . most of the time it is a pompous soap opera , filled with empty dialogue that the actors deliver in a high pitched voice and " meaningful " winks . the film is based on alberto caesella's play " death takes a holiday " . the story concentrates around bill ( anthony hopkins ) who lives a fulfilled life as a successful business man , but sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night and hears a voice that is saying " yes " . soon he meets a young elegant gentlemen ( brad pitt ) who introduces himself as " death " . it is bill's time . but death has other plans . it has come down to us simple mortals to find out what it means to be alive . our bill is chosen to be death's guide and in exchange he gets time . bill introduces death as joe black , who immediately becomes the center of everyone's attention . bill's business partners speculate about why joe is constantly at bill's side , lives in his house and resides at his office . that is not all , however . bill's youngest daughter susan ( claire forlani ) falls in love with the mysterious stranger and joe falls in love with her . this relationship is bound to have some serious consequences . it wouldn't be fair to say that this film didn't have some interesting moments , such as the scene where joe is invited to join bill's family for dinner . when joe starts enjoying peanut butter and later falls in love , the experience is somewhat different . it is obvious that a story like this story is very difficult to structure . it's one thing to say : " wouldn't it be fun to have death take human form and come down to earth . . " to create a motion picture out of this is another . four screenwriters have worked on a script that lacks drive and logic . it is overlong and too primitive to pass as a serious film . on the other hand it demonstrates incredible performances and a very decent direction by martin brest ( " scent of a woman " ) . hopkins looks great in any role , and no matter how shallow or hollow it is , he will complete it . his talent and charisma are needed here more than any where else , since it actually saves the film from a complete embarrassment . but pitt is the one that got one of the most difficult roles of recent time . how can you play death in human form ? to me it seems that death and life are not something that can be associated with earthly matters . they are not creatures , but phenomenas . saying that death takes human form would be the same as to suggest that eternity would take human form . handling such a ridiculous task is incredibly difficult and pitt deserves some credit for his work . speaking in a calm , soft voice , portraying death as a lonely , distant and powerful guy that is unfamiliar with practical earthly matters . he looks and acts more like an angel of death , rather than a demon or a red-eyed executioner . claire forlani and others are also fine , stretching their stereotypical characters to their limits . unfortunately their performances are not enough to rescue this film from its self inflicted misery . in other words this is not what i expected from the director of " scent of a woman " . it could ( and should ) be better with such cast and crew . in the end it seems as if they have all been intensively working on a ravishingly looking soap opera . 
