What a Curious and Romantically Compelling Mess

Rating: Null/10 (11 April 2003)

Against my better judgment, I find myself truly liking this film. Sure it's too long, yet the lingering pace allows most of the characters to display a depth that gives a certain reality, so unusual in an era of thoughtless action and explosions.
The film is still tremendously flawed - any movie with such a string of credited screenwriters is sure to be a messy mongrel affair (and the horribly hacked-up tv version mangles things even further and leaves poor Jeffrey Tambor's character as a mere shadow). Marcia Gay Harden, wonderfully insecure, starts the movie with the promising theme of the neglected sister, but is in turn neglected by the screenwriters and withers away. Joe Black never even notices her. Bill Parrish/Anthony Hopkins, the patriarchal father, clearly regrets neglecting family matters, yet never gets an ultimate scene with them all together to express this. Susan/Claire Forlani is supposedly a medical resident, yet her character is given none of the aggressive and analytical traits needed in a doctor, and evidently only works around late breakfasts, long lunches, family dinners and afternoon dalliances anyway. Hopkins has a 65th birthday for his thousand closest friends, yet not one of his board of directors is in attendance, but instead are at an impossibly late-night meeting elsewhere, all personified in that sub-plot's supposed dramatic climax by a tiny desk speakerphone. The evil rival corporate raider never once appears on screen. And yet I loved the slow introspection, the quiet afternoons, and the loving relationship between doting father and devoted daughter, and am captivated by this odd movie.
But I found the biggest flaw, by far, to have been with Joe Black himself, ironically, since this was presumably a star vehicle for Brad Pitt. Sadly, he's not the actor for this role. True, Death could pick any body he chose, so why not Brad Pitt's, but I think the movie would have "fit" far better with an older man in the role who could have personified timeless wondering and yearning so much more understandably to a film audience. We expect more maturity somehow, more world-weariness in having ushered countless generations away from life. More appropriate that Death should already know little things like cookies and peanut butter and not waste time on that. It's the deep emotions of humanity that he was curious to feel, and that should have been the focus of his visit - frustrations of corporate life, sufferings of the dying, falling in love. But we are given a young pup who wanders empty halls aimlessly with a totally impassive visage where the very heart of this film should have been, and I think that is why it failed.
Had, ironically, perhaps a Robert Redford or even Al Pacino of maybe 45 years old been given this role, I think it could have worked. I can see those older faces taking in the new experiences of emotion, and dealing far more authoritatively, and eventually compassionately, with their hosts. Surely Susan/Claire Forlani would so much more naturally fall in love with an assuring father figure: clearly that's what she's seeking (I fell in love with Claire Forlani, by the way - stunningly beautiful, and I think did a fine job of portraying vulnerability and growing sagacity). Bill Parrish would have bonded far better with a more mature-looking Death as well. The movie, then, didn't need an hour less; it needed a more compelling Joe Black.
A final word on the film score... Thomas Newman has done wonderful work in such varied requirements as minimalist contemporary accompaniment for The Player and soulful introspection of Shawshank Redemption. This film is three hours long, much of it in justified silence. Perhaps because the screenplay was obviously hacked and shuffled about, some musical passages of an already fairly brief (relatively) score are simply repeated in different scenes. Nonetheless, Newman's wonderfully atmospheric and lusciously romantic score should be pointed out for its merit. I thought it was music of the highest order, tremendously enhancing the movie over-all. The romantic theme/melody is gorgeous, and I loved the passage at the close of the love scene: the delicate rocking almost barcarolle/lullaby. Someone else evidently liked it as well, as it's reprised at the very end of the credits (or else they needed an extra 30 seconds of something). Were I ever in charge of a romantic movie, I would steal this exact score for it.