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Nov 14, 2014mswrite rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
An elegant misfire, "Meet Joe Black" is a remake of sorts of the 1934 film, "Death Takes a Holiday" starring Frederic March. Joe Black (Brad Pitt in the March role) meets Susan Parrish (played by Claire Forlani, a kind of sultry Audrey Hepburn) in a diner one morning. Over coffee they strike up a philosophical conversation about relationships. He's interested. She's interested back, but already involved with someone else. She says goodbye and rises to go about her day; you feel his disappointment. He leaves too, and turning once more to watch her as he crosses the street is suddenly and violently struck by a car. Joe's body is immediately appropriated by Death who coincidentally (or maybe not) has come for Susan's father, Bill, a wealthy businessman (played by the always excellent Anthony Hopkins). Bill Parish is not ready to die. He wangles for a little more time, convincing this handsome Grim Reaper that there is merit in learning first hand why human beings are so passionately attached to life and living. Intrigued, Death/Joe agrees, and his quirky, unsettling interactions with the various people in Bill's life--including the perplexed Susan, startled to find the hunky stranger from the diner is now a fixture at her father's side--provide the film's humor and tension. I wanted to like this movie more than I actually did. If anything Brad Pitt is more drop-dead gorgeous (pun not quite intended) than his leading lady. But he might have been the reason I couldn't fully embrace the film. Though I've liked him just fine in other performances, here Pitt seems slightly wooden. That may be an odd and possibly unfair criticism. He's Death, after all. Not being human, he can't offer human feelings of warmth or empathy. He's supposed to be distant, strange and vaguely off-putting. So maybe the real problem is Pitt's noticeable lack of chemistry with Ms. Forlani. Aren't we supposed to become emotionally invested in the destiny of these two impossibly beautiful young people? Aren't we supposed to watch them and find ourselves idly wondering if, just maybe, the onscreen heat became an off-screen reality? But there was no heat. As luminous as these actors are, for some reason Pitt and Forlani simply don't have that spark that makes a movie couple seize and hold an audience's imagination. Instead what I found myself idly wondering was why no one was asking if, um, you know, Bill had gone gay. I mean, here's this heart-stoppingly gorgeous young guy who shows up from out of nowhere. He attaches himself like Velcro to this wealthy and distinguished older man who isn't offering anyone--even his favorite child, Susan--any explanations that make sense. Whether they wanted to think it or not, in this day and age most people would begin to at least consider the possibility: After years of obeying societal rules and living for others, was the widowed Bill Parrish finally, quietly, emerging from the closet..? Come on, nobody thought of that?