Larry King said it best, "what great movies are all about."

Rating: 10/10 (12 November 2012)

Meet Joe Black might just be my favorite film of all-time, and I say this with confidence, despite there being so many great films made over a long span of movie history. So, that is saying something about this one. Meet Joe Black is a film that focuses more on looks from its characters than the dialog actually spoken. Yet, this screenplay is also fantastic because of some of the amazing lines that are spoken.
When describing to his daughter what love is truly about, William Parish (played by Anthony Hopkins) describes it as "forgetting you head and thinking with your heart". Now, how more true of a definition of love is there? I surely can't think of one. He also tells his daughter Susan (played by Claire Forlani) to keep her options open rather than marry her fiancée by saying, "lightning could strike". And lightning does strike, within a few hours coincidently, as Susan meets The Man in the Coffee Shop (played by Brad Pitt), who completed blows her mind away and causes her to go weak at the knees for one whom she has only just met. But, when Mr. Lightning is suddenly killed in a car accident and shows up at Susan's home, he informs her father that he is in fact Death, having taken the body of the man Susan met so that he can experience life before taking William. "What matters is that I stay interested... and in return you get TIME." William takes Death, who is using the name Joe Black as a disguise, under his wing to show him the world. Susan is confused by the sudden change of personality from the man she met in the coffee shop to Joe, not knowing that the man she met has died or that the body before her is Death, planning to take her father when the time comes. But, Susan falls for Joe, and he even more so for her. And when Joe threatens to take Susan with him, William attempts to protect his daughter by informing Joe that it is not he that Susan is in love with... it is the idea of the man he once was before his untimely demise... that she is still in love with the Man in the Coffee Shop, and that everything since has been nothing but aftermath. He also tells Joe that he doesn't truly love Susan. "To take whatever you like because it pleases you, that's not love. It's missing everything that matters."
Aside from the incredible acting in this picture, Meet Joe Black has emotion behind the looks that the actors give to one another, that says everything that needs to be said without dialog even being needed. Meet Joe Black is a 3 hour movie, with a third act and ending that takes up almost 45 minutes of time. But, the payoff is spectacularly well-done, with a finale that'll pull at the heartstrings of any true story lover. You come to realize that to Meet Joe Black is nothing quite out of the ordinary. After all, everyone eventually does.