Meet Joe Black Review

Meet Joe Black is about death visiting billionaire communications mogul William Parrish - Anthony Hopkins - a couple of days before his 65th birthday. Death inhabits the body of a young man - Brad Pitt - who was killed just after accidentally meeting Parrish`s daughter Susan played by the exquisite Claire Forlani. Death - called Joe Black for the sake of introductions - plans on staying around for a while - he`s curious about life as we know it - but he`s not well-versed in the tastes and manners of humankind. However he is well aware of our foibles... he shadows William`s every move and becomes involved not only in his corporate life but also with his daughter...Meet Joe Black has come in for its share of criticism and you can see why, the pregnant pauses make up a significant amount of its 170 minute running time. However there is something poignant about death becoming acquainted with the loss he inflicts on us humans and in him experiencing it himself. There`s some degree of discomfort in Joe Black one moment being a gauche outsider, the next an autocratic controller of `the situation`. And Brad Pitt isn`t quite up to it. However, Hopkins once again gives weight to a film and Forlani is beautifully vulnerable. Also good in the cast is Marcia Gay Harden as William`s older daughter who`s desperate to please her father on his birthday, Jeffrey Tambor as her accommodating husband and Jake Weber as William`s corporate rival. Dante Ferretti`s production design is a significant contributor to the film as is Emmanuel Lubezki`s cinematography.