| Title: Meet Joe Black Starring: Brad Pitt, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Claire Forlani, Jake Webber, Marcia Gay Harden, and Jeffrey Tambor. Genre: Romantic drama Rated: PG-13 for a little sexual content Rating: **** (out of ****) Meet Joe Black took three hours to try and capture the audience with dramatics, and for me it failed horribly. That's not to say I didn't like the movie, no, it was just a little long and seemed to build up to this huge ending that wasn't cut out to be so grand. The plot, however, was incredible and one of the finely depthed stories I've seen out of Hollywood in a long, long time. I don't wish to ruin it here, so if you plan on seeing it, don't read this article. When urged by her father, William Parish (Sir Anthony Hopkins), Susan Parish (Claire Forlani) decided to keep her eye out on a better boyfriend then her current fling, Drew (Jake Webber). While sitting in a coffee house that morning, her lightning struck. A fast talking flirt (Brad Pitt) quickly gained her heart. However, after she left the coffee house, they both turned away and kept walking. After Susan turned the corner, the un-named flirt was hit by a car and clearly got killed. However, deeper then that, Susan's father, Will, had been hearing vioces following him lately. Talking to him through his mind. Even moreso, the voices could control his heart... and kill him if they wanted. Shortly after that morning, the voices told Will to let the young man outside into the house and meet with Will. He let the man in and to the audience's surprise, the man was the same person in the coffee house... just, different somehow. The man introduces himself... his name is Death. He has come to offer Will an agreement to extend his life. This new visitor to the moral realm will grant Will a little longer to live if Will shows him around and explains the world. Will agrees, but asks how death came in such a form. His answer, "I needed a body." As you can tell, Meet Joe Black is a very bizzare film and this doesn't even begin to cover the entire plot. Death's name on earth, as introduced by Will, is Joe Black and a very suitable one too. Brad Pitt, though a very dramatic performance, seemed to childish and curious as death, but I guess that was his director, not him. Anthony Hopkins was brilliant, but not nearly as stunning as Hannibal. Claire Forlani (from Mallrats) plays a very different part here and still captures it brilliantly. Meet Joe Black was an amazingly well-written play deserving the three stars, but it was a trite poorly directed, getting it no more then that. Eh, still giving it a four and a spot with the rest of my classics. -Alaay- |