“Love is passion, obsession, someone you can't live without. I say, fall head over heels. Find someone you can love like crazy and who will love you the same way back. How do you find him? Well, you forget your head, and you listen to your heart. And I'm not hearing any heart. Cause the truth is, honey, there's no sense living your life without this. To make the journey and not fall deeply in love, well, you haven't lived a life at all. But you have to try, cause if you haven't tried, you haven't lived.”
Life and death are two of the universal constants that all of the world is aware of. Children are born every day and people die every day. What if people on earth didn’t die today? Or tomorrow? Maybe even for seven days. Earth’s death rate is at a complete halt. This is the idea of what Martin Brest brings to his 1998 film Meet Joe Black.
The film is a thought-provoking romantic drama with a supernatural twist. You can tell that the 1934 film ‘Death Takes a Holiday’ inspired this film. This was Martin Brest’s follow up after ‘Scent of a Woman’.
‘Meet Joe Black’ is about Bill Parrish who is almost 65 years old. He’s an intelligent capitalist and also a loving father who wants the best for his family. However, his health is declining and his company is under attack from its competitors. By his side are his two loving daughters, Susan and Allison. Susan is engaged to his business associate that Bill doesn’t want as a son-in-law. Instead, he encourages Susan to, “find someone you can love like crazy, and who’ll love you the same way back.” He wants her to have the best love she can have.
Prophetic words indeed for Susan meets a stranger in a café and they almost instantaneously connect. They part ways without exchanging names (this is before cell phones and being attached to our screens). The two of them infatuated and enthusiastic for the future. Unbeknownst to Susan, the young man is soon killed after their meeting and his body is taken by Death. Death visits Bill and tells him that his time is up. Bill just isn’t ready to go yet. So Death strikes up a bargain with Bill, Death will delay Bill’s death if he teaches him what life is all about. Death is then named Joe Black. In the process of learning about life, he falls in love with Susan. So when Susan final finds someone she wants to be with, unintentionally Death, Bill is conflicted.
The performances in the film are great. Anthony Hopkins effortlessly runs circles around his fellow actors. He is on fine form here with his portrayal of a business tycoon coming to terms with his mortality. Claire Forlani has a special kind of gentleness in her performance, which makes it believable that if Death walked the earth that he would fall in love with her. It’s a shame that most of her films now are straight to DVD releases. Then there’s Brad Pitt who plays both the charismatic guy in the café and Death. Pitt has one of his finest performances as Death in his mostly impressive career. He grounds the film and is a delight to watch.
Meet Joe Black is a magnificent mixture of comedy, drama, and romance. Although, it’s romantic at its core. It’s poignant and succeeds to tug quite effectively at the heartstrings with those moments of real tender beauty. Thomas Newman’s truly stunningly beautiful score truly adds to the film. My only complaint about the film is that is sometimes has some uneven pacing that could have been cut out to help the film with its runtime.
Life is a gift. Many of us tend to forget that. We are so obsessed with things that seem vital at the time, but looking back seems so trivial. It’s the little things in our life that brings us joy such as eating peanut butter or sitting outside soaking in the sun while petting your cat or dog. Death sees what we take from granted as pure and magical. He’s innocent in a way. When he tastes peanut butter for the first time he says that it’s the most amazing food he’s ever had. When he’s with Bill’s family for an extravagant dinner he rather just eat peanut butter. The point is that life can be difficult enough, but it isn’t until others are no longer with us that we fully comprehend it. Another takeaway from the film is that you don’t need to be rich to leave your mark on the world because you’ll leave your mark on the hearts of the people you love.
5 out of 5
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