This Movie is a Master Class on What it Means to Love.

Rating: 10/10 (7 November 2014)

This movie is in my top five movies of all time. In the "making of" documentary you hear about how the director would sometimes take a scene 20 times to get it just right. It shows! Every single scene is like something from a museum--perfection personified. The script, direction, cinematography, music are all examples of how a movie can be a true work of art. I can find almost no fault with this movie. The acting is top notch, although I think Brad Pitt's acting here is not quite up to the quality of all the others.
I just read a favorite review of another reviewer who loved this film and says that this is a movie about death. I respectively disagree. This is not at all a film about death, it is a film about love. I tell people, if you want to experience what love really is or really means, this is the movie for that--not in some romantic comedy kind of way--but a real philosophical experience and discussion of what it means to truly love. There are many characters experiencing their loving relationships in various ways and so many examples, discussions, and experiences of love, that to me this is a Master Class in what it means to love or be loved. The preoccupation about death is natural, since the main character is Death, wanting to experience human life, but in that experience, he thinks he falls in love, but he has no idea what that means. It takes the three hours of this movie (so well spent!) for him to be shown and taught what it really means to love. This movie is a classic. Of course it didn't do well at the box office. Works of great philosophical significance rarely do. I can only promise you, your life will be enriched after seeing this film and you will think about it long after--I sure did--after every viewing (about six so far).