Meet Joe Bland

Rating: 4/10 (13 September 2003)

I guess the pitch for this movie went something like this : " It`s a touching romantic fantasy where death in a human form comes to take the life of a millionaire but death falls in love with the millionaire`s daughter " . This might have been a success if someone hadn`t said the following two things
1 ) " Great . Let`s make a movie that lasts three hours "

2 ) " let`s cast Brad Pitt as death "
That`s my two criticisms of this movie . How on earth could anyone working at a Hollywood studio believe that a romantic fantasy has enough legs to last 178 minutes ? I guess that`s because so much of the running time is taken up with Brad Pitt on screen doing basically nothing as the camera holds his gaze , I mean look at the number of times the camera lingers on Pitt , it`s like someone`s told Pitt to just stand there while the camaraman has nipped out to lunch . I know a lot of females in the audience can`t get enough of Brad but is this a good reason for stringing out a film to twice its natural length ? The story could been easily told in 90 minutes if someone had decided to edit out all the scenes with Pitt staring into camera for no apparent reason
Not to be totally negative MEET JOE BLACK does have a couple of good points. With the exception of Pitt , who as usual shows us he was cast entirely down to his looks rather than talent or charisma , the cast give touching understated performances , and it goes without saying Anthony Hopkins gives the best performance of the lot . Perhaps the film`s best point is Thomas Newman`s score which absolutely beautiful and you`ll be able to remember it for days afterwards . If truth be told the score belongs in a better film