Death falls in love with life!

Rating: 10/10 (17 November 1998)

--minor Spoilers below--
Meet Joe Black is 20 minutes too long and deserved a more courageous ending. But, it still is a great picture! The setting of the movie is:
1st Big Moment (min 01): The movie starts and we meet Death right away, although just as an internal voice. But it's all we need. It's the perfect way for Death to appear -as our inner voice. After all, don't we all have this little voice telling us stuff all day long? What if one day that pre-existent voice had a different tone, a tone we haven't heard before? What would we do? How could we share that with anybody? It is such a personal matter, such an inner experience. However, if you have ever been close with someone with a terminal illness you know this is exactly what happens to them.
And now, in the movie, the supernatural presence of Death has become legit, we let suspension of disbelief take over for now, unless the movie gets ridiculous -fortunately, it doesn't. And the relationship between the two main characters in the movie begins as interestingly as it can be. Next we are given the atmosphere. An opulent setting, luxurious
toys, refined manners (a classical "aspirational background") and just as important: an emotional setting (strong family connections and a specially close relationship between the father and his younger daughter). Plus, the apparent emotional antagonist of Death is also presented (Death can't have a physical antagonist) as the inadequate love interest of Death's future romantic interest. Of course, the true emotional antagonist of Death is much more powerful and interesting: it's his own chosen victim.
2nd Big Moment (min 11): "Lightning strikes." If Iraq had half the chemistry displayed between Brad Pitt and the breathtaking Claire Forlani in that coffee shop sequence we would be in big trouble. Now, the moment we meet Brad Pitt we realize we are not seeing Death yet, it can't be, he's too captivatingly earthy (male magnetism galore). The deliciously coy Claire has little to say but her body language tells us all we need to know.
It is a classic moment we have seen in movies and experienced in real life many times and yet it never losses its magic: boy and girl meet and their eyes lock as the rest of the world vanishes around them. Usually, that instant recognition of mutual attraction is later disguised in furtive looks, nervous laughs, and lots of subtext talk. Like in this sequence, when they appear to be talking about Brad's eventual need of a doctor and Brad says "then you could be it" and she says "I could be her," and then they both repeat what they just said, only this time it is evident they are not talking about medicine.
3rd Big Moment (min 21): it's the stuff mythology is made off. Both characters, continue to deny to themselves what is happening, refuse to verbalize what is so obvious to their hearts and slowly walk away from one another, not even knowing each other's names. There are moments of hesitation in which their emotional needs seem ready to overcome the risk of losing face and yet ego prevails and they keep walking away. Claire escapes toward the secure distractions of her career, Brad literally crashes into the hands of Death.
The audience is in shock as just moments ago they were empathizing watching two very likeable characters drift apart before their eyes, perhaps reliving their own acts of timidity and lost opportunities, to the chords of the magnificent music of Thomas Newman in the background. This is the very kind of ritualistic experience for the audience that Jung had in mind with his "participation mystique." In a fraction of a second we go from a metaphorical romantic agony to a real, fleshy, bloody agony... well, that IS life, and that is exactly what a movie about Death is all about, life.
And this is the set-up that takes us to Plot Point-I when Death meets his chosen victim face to face (min 30).
Cizin