Another Great Concept Fails to Deliver

Rating: 5/10 (22 March 2008)

I remember seeing the trailer for this movie a handful of years ago, but only saw it for the first time recently. My expectations for this film were higher than usual: with Anthony Hopkins and Brad Pitt highlighting a film that paints itself very clearly as philosophical rather than entertaining, I put on my 'literary analyst' cap and popped the DVD in, ready to delve into whatever notion of Death the movie was ready to explore. Even if I'd kept my standards at par, I'd still have been disappointed.
The obvious problem with this film is that it drags. On. And on. And on. This movie would have been absolutely incredible had there been at least an hour and a half less of it. What I was expecting was the Death character questioning or bringing about questions of mortality or family or SOMETHING. Instead he mostly wonders around with a blank stare while obscenely rich people mutter angrily behind his back. There are at least four plot lines going on simultaneously: we have Anthony Hopkins taking death around the world because apparently even Death gets bored sometime, his daughter throwing the Party of the Milennium for Daddy much to his chagrin, a backstabbing employee trying to Oust the Old Boss and Become the New Boss, and the Love Story between non-manic daughter and Death, who has found love. Right away we can (and the producers should have) eliminated the business side of things; it did nothing at all for Pitt's character, except for the last scene which, I will admit, was nicely done, and also tacked on much of the extra mileage of this movie. The love story was fairly well handled.
It was the ending, though, that was the final, crushing blow. After a long, long, LONG drawn-out film I was expecting at least some brilliant moment of realization, some philosophical monologue, something. No, the ending...is rushed. It's as if the director finally realized that he ran long...two and a half hours (or thereabouts; it felt like two and a half) into the film. So, instead, anything any of the characters were supposed to have learned must be inferred via subtext.
This had all of the potential to be an amazing film. The idea was flawless, the cast was brilliant...and it flopped. See it to believe me, but I guarantee you won't watch it twice.