n the eve of his 65th birthday, Bill Parrish (Hopkins) starts hearing
voices. Then he has premonitions of his own demise. This unsettles his
comfortable, privileged life as the patriarch of a loving family, the
captain of a successful communications corporation and the squire of a
sprawling country estate.
That doesn't stop him from counseling his favorite daughter, Susan
(Forlani), not to settle in matters of love--even though Susan's intended is
Parrish's own chief corporate lieutenant, Drew (Weber). "I want you to
levitate," he tells her. "I want you to dance like a dervish."
With this in mind, Susan has a chance encounter with a garrulous young
man (Pitt), and briefly glimpses new possibilities. But the two part
company, and the young man dies unexpectedly.
Parrish, meanwhile, realizes that his premonitions are real. The voices that
speak to him of death become corporeal in the form of the recently
deceased young man. It's Death in human form, and he wants to take a little
breather from the unending labor of ending lives. In exchange for acting as a
tour guide to life, Parrish will be granted an extension of the ultimate
deadline--just long enough for Death, renamed Joe Black, to have a little
fun.
At first, Parrish's family is bemused by this mysterious stranger, and
Susan can't figure out how the friendly young man she met earlier has
suddenly become her father's closest confidante. Slowly, Joe's directness
and simple charm win them over--Susan especially.
Black also insinuates himself into Parrish's business, where a major
takeover is being considered. Facing death, Parrish is reluctant to sell the company he's built. But the takeover is pushed by Drew, who begins to view Black as a rival for both Parrish's business and Susan's hand. The longer Black hangs around, the closer he and Susan become, to Parrish's considerable anguish. Over all of this looms the prospect of the inevitable. But what will become of Susan?
A slow death
Early in Meet Joe Black, Susan interrupts her father during
a lecture about the joys of love. "Give it to me again," she says. "But
the short version this time."
The same could be said for this entire film, directed by Brest (Scent
of a Woman) and scripted by four veteran writers, Ron Osborn, Jeff
Reno, Kevin Wade and Bo Goldman. Meet Joe Black is based on the
1934 movie Death Takes a Holiday and the 1920s stage play that came
before it. But it is less a remake than an inflation, running more than twice
as long as the original film--nearly three hours--to little benefit.
Though handsomely photographed by Emmanuel Lubezki and boasting rich
production design by Dante Ferretti, Black plays like an initial
director's cut. Scene after scene goes on a beat--or two or three--longer
than necessary, vitiating any dramatic tension and giving the film
a plodding, somber pace. A key example is the first introduction of Joe to
Parrish's family: The scene milks the humor of Parrish's inability to come
up with a name for Death until it falls flat.
Unlike its predecessor, Black also seems unsure how to play the
inherent comedy of Death on vacation. There are a few scenes where Joe
discovers the joys of everyday pleasures, from the spring of a bed to the
savoriness of peanut butter. But these light moments are few and far in
between the much more earnest sequences in which Joe struggles with newfound
feelings of love, and Parrish agonizes over the legacy of his life.
Hopkins turns in his usual strong performance, though he seems uncomfortable at times, perhaps because of the weightiness of the proceedings. Forlani, one of the film's pleasures, is radiant and vulnerable at the same time. Pitt is more convincing as the ill-fated young man than as Black. The supporting players, including Tambor and Marcia Gay Harden, are welcome diversions.
