Stunning Insight Into TheTrue Meaning of Life.

Rating: 10/10 (22 March 2008)

I caught the last 5 minutes of this film on television and was mesmerized. I looked up Anthony Hopkins' film biography on IMDb to learn the name of the film in order to see it in entirety. What a fruitful effort! Watching the DVD was such a treat I watched it at least 5 times in a week!
The film is long enough and delves into the characters' lives in such detail that we become old friends with most of the major characters by the end of the 3 hours. Only the despicable Drew character is thankfully left a mystery.
Bill Parrish is a giant both in business and in his family life. He is so powerful that the lives of all his family revolve around him. His 2 daughters adore him and depend on him emotionally, even his married older daughter Allison. This unhealthy dependence partly springs from the loss of their mother at a young age. Bill loved his wife so much that he never remarried, focusing all his energies on his business and his daughters.
Bill has always wished for a son and subconsciously seeks to fulfill this desire by supporting his top aide and prospective son-in-law Drew. Younger daughter Susan senses Bill's desire for her to marry Drew and continue the dynasty, since her career as a physician is not going to involve Bill's business empire. Susan seems willing to marry Drew to please her father, but her lukewarm romance troubles Bill. He wants Susan to have all the passion and joy he experienced in his marriage and this will likely never happen with Drew. Susan probably senses that beneath the pleasing exterior, Drew is a monster.
Allison has always played second fiddle to Susan. She has always wanted to be the apple of Daddy's eye, to little effect. She has suffered mental problems and a raging inferiority complex. She marries Quince, a man obviously in far over his head trying to function as a board member of Parrish Communications. Quince is easily manipulated into providing the information necessary for Drew to topple Bill from his position as board chairman. Quince has the redeeming virtue of a good heart and a willingness to face his failure and seek Bill's forgiveness.
Allison tries to win daddy's favor by organizing an over-the-top 65th birthday party for him. Bill detests the concept, but grudgingly tolerates the project to keep peace with Allison. Allison continually pesters Bill to make trivial decisions about aspects of the upcoming party while he is consumed with anxiety about his business and his impending death. Eventually Allison senses the need to make peace with her father and accepts that she will have to settle for second place in his affections.
Susan visits a coffee shop near her hospital and has a fateful encounter with a compelling young man who has all the qualities she finds lacking in Drew. She is strongly drawn to the young man and is shaken to the core by her instant attraction. She is both thrilled and appalled by the encounter that threatens to disrupt her life. She starts to see Drew in an unfavorable light in comparison to the nameless young man. Susan turns a corner on the way to work and fails to see the young man killed by oncoming traffic as he lingers in crossing the street, distracted with thoughts of her.
Death, wanting to interact on the human plane with Bill Parrish finds the young man the perfect vessel to inhabit to accomplish his purpose. Death heals the young man's injuries and utilizes the body to visit Bill and act as a quasi-member of the Parrish family. Death has developed few social skills over the eons and acts in innocent outrage of social norms. Bill is forced to tolerate a great deal of bad behavior from his visitor in order to live a few more days. Death is given a name, Joe Black, in order to make social intercourse possible.
Susan meets the mysterious young man later the same day. She attends a family dinner, only to find him sitting at the table with her family. He announces that he will be staying at the Parrish townhouse and Bill dares not challenge the decision.
Joe Black is strangely different from the man in the coffee shop. He is socially awkward, mysterious, powerful, and dangerous behind his pleasant conversation. Joe's relationship with Bill is outrageous and unexplained. Susan sees her father yield to Joe on many issues where he would never submit to anyone else. Susan has several encounters with Joe that enhance her attraction to him while upsetting her on another level. He refuses to explain his relationship with her father or what purpose lies behind his visit.
Eventually, Drew explodes in rage at Joe's influence on Bill and Susan and ends his relationship with Susan. Susan has another encounter with Joe that ends in her bedroom. It is amusing to see Joe reacting to all the instinctive responses of his body with great confusion. Susan has to make the first move to get things rolling. Joe's awkward responses to Susan's advances are met with great amusement and tolerance. The story hints that Joe proves an apt pupil in the arts of love.
The story ends with Drew's horrific plan defeated and Bill saying goodbye to his family. He bravely marches out to meet his fated end. Death yields control of the young man's body and Joe returns to the man he was in the coffee shop. Joe and Susan pick up where they left off and walk hand in hand to a life together.
This film is so rich in meaning and character development, it will take me many more viewings to see it all. A prospect I look forward to with delight. A huge THANK YOU to all those artists involved in the creation of this gem!