Needs editing down to 30 minutes or so

Rating: 5/10 (20 August 2005)

I love Claire Forlani and felt sorry for her wasting so much acting talent in this long-winded overblown pretence of a movie.
There are so many holes in the 'Death Takes a Vacation' plot that as soon as Mr Pitt got his I was wishing that he hadn't and it had been developed as a straight realistic love story between Susan and Thingy (Pitt - we never find out his character's real name).
So we get to see even more of the rich side of America and how angst-ridden they all are.
And don't even get me going on that laughable stuff with the terminally ill Jamaican woman and Pitt's patois.
No wonder I prefer European films. I get so fed up of this kind if US tripe, full of faux sentimentality and Life Lessons.
And finally - Susan seemed to figure out exactly what Joe Black was, and that he'd been switched back with the original guy that she met in the coffee shop. HOW???
A friend of mine lent me this DVD on the basis that it's the best film she (note - She) has ever seen and she watches it repeatedly. Maybe if Brad Pitt (miscast, in my opinion) hadn't been in it she might have thought differently.
Sorry for the rant, but I just had to let it all out. I feel better now.