A Rare Film

Rating: 10/10 (23 November 2010)

I saw this marvelous movie for the first time last month. I have no idea how I missed it; maybe there's a reason
In a way, "Meet Joe Black" is a science fiction film, a genre which, if done well and done with sincerity, consistency and resonant meaning, is one of my favorites. It is said that in the best science fiction stories you are asked to believe in only one unbelievable thing. In the case of this movie, that one thing is that Death is a person and he is on a vacation from the "function" he performs in order to see, up close, what life is. He wants to know rapture and beauty and love and pain and the meaning of death to the living, to taste, touch, feel, hear, and see. Death starts out as a wide-eyed, yet head-strong child, goes through selfish adolescence and grows into sadder but wiser old age. In the end, he learns to love life in all its contradictions and complexities and is, himself, loath to leave it.
The movie is knowingly conceived and exquisitely presented down to the smallest details, the most nuanced expressions of faces and eyes. The photographer in me recognizes and appreciates in this film the care and attention given to every scene and especially to the noble potential of the human face, the souls seen through those eyes. The performances of Claire Forlani, Brad Pitt, and Anthony Hopkins are perhaps the best of their careers, and the lines they speak are never obvious, shrill, or trite. Jeffrey Tambor's portrayal of Quince is honest and kind and is subtly pivotal to the film. Indeed, all of the performances are of the highest quality.
And then there's the music. The poignancy, sensitivity and emotional impact of Thomas Newman's score is unparalleled. That he has never won an Academy Award is all the proof one needs that there are times when the Hollywood establishment just doesn't get it.
"Meet Joe Black" is a three-hour philosophical ballet of fabulous faces and beautiful places, inside and out, that speaks to the mind and the heart.
"It nice it happen to you. It like you came to Cat Island and you had a holiday, sun didn't burn you red, just brown, sleep no mosquito eat you, rum no pound you head nex' day. But trut' is, dat bound to happen, you stay long enough. So tak dat nice picture home wi' you, but don' be fooled. We lonely here mostly, too. If we lucky, we got some nice pictures."
No movie I know of has taken on the issues of life, love and death so directly nor handled them with such sensitivity and honesty.