Enjoyable and done well

Rating: Null/10 (4 January 2002)

"Meet Joe Black" tales the story of how Death fell in love... Well I'd give it marks for an original premise (if it wasn't a re-make). I have never seen the original so I can comment only on this.
In it's favour: A fine performance by Anthony Hopkins as William Parrish, a man who is forced to humour Death's "holiday" in return for a few more days on Earth. The directing is generally finely handled by Martin Brest as it is able to observe the grandoise life Parrish has built up for him and yet also convey some of the intimacy that develops between Brad Pitt's character of Joe Black and Claire Forlani's Susan Parrish. He also manages to keep the tale evenly paced so there is no sense of any scene being rushed to force it to a climax (though this will detract some people from the movie). The score is - for the large part - nicely observed and complements the scene at hand.
Against it: Brad Pitt generally gives a fine performance as the eponymous Joe Black but at times it's hard to see the passion of love in him. While the musical score was generally good it most certainly grated at the end of the movie falling prey to Hollywood's incessant need to constantly swell the music to match some climatic event. And of course there's the arguable length of the movie - the movie doesn't drag and I was never bored by it but, at the same time, it might have benefited by some pruning in certain areas.
Overall it's a good movie. It's no classic and the ending to the movie is no surprise (though it's not meant to be particularly). It's leisurely and does not rush itself. Ultimately forgettable and a piece of well done visual candy but there's nothing wrong with that. One to catch if you can.