Death and taxes

Rating: 9/10 (27 March 2002)

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** I bought the ultimate edition DVD of this movie a few days ago. I had seen it once before some years ago and i must say my recollection of the movie was entirely different from what it turned out to be. I'd say in the bottom line this is a somewhat strange yet ordinary love story, it is however much more deep and serious than most movies in it's genre.
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It's a story about Bill Parrish(Anthony Hopkins)a man who days before his 65:th birthday begin to hear a "voice" calling to him saying; YES. He is naturally confused and terrified about this and thinks he is losing his mind. Moments later he gets an unordinary visitor. In the movie he is described as DEATH(Brad Pitt). He has come to take Bill to the other side but in order to reach Bill he naturally needs a human body. He takes the body of a young man without knowing that Bill's daughter(Claire Forlani) just recently met this man in a local coffee shop and experienced what is referred to in the movie as LIGHTNING. Death also has another agenda, he wants to experience life. In my opinion he is fascinated about Bill's intelligence and the way he expresses himself, he talks about love, passion, obsession etc. I think death finds these things very interesting and wants to learn more of life on "earth". So he decides to stay for a while and forces Bill to let him live in his house. Well you don't need to be Einstein to figure out what happens when Bill's daughter comes home for dinner and sees Joe Black, that's the name Bill gives him. Yes they eventually fall in love. I do not wish spoil anything else for someone out there who still haven´t seen this movie and intend to do so.
Even though the movie is almost 3 hours long it never gets too long. It is filled with magnificent dialogue throughout the entire movie. This is a very intelligently made movie that really gets you thinking mostly about love and death. The characters are very likable and natural. The leading performances are as we've seen several times before from Pitt and Hopkins simply perfect. Claire is also superb, she isn't just beautiful, she can also act i honestly can't think of anyone more suitable for her role. Even though this is a romantic drama/comedy of some kind it is unlike any other i've seen in that category. Those kind of movies tend to be very sappy and predictable, everything this movie isn't. It is however very tragic and sad but in a good way. Especially the ending in this movie is surprisingly good. I sincerely recommend this movie to everyone regardless of taste. I will most certainly be looking forward for more exciting movies from the amazing director Martin Brest.
Bill: Should i be afraid?
Death/Joe: No, not a man like you.