Meet Joe Black (1998)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119643/
Director: Martin Brest / Script: Ron Osborn, Jeff Reno, Kevin Wade, Bo Goldman
Runtime: 178min
Cast: Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Claire Forlani, Jake Weber, Marcia Harden, Jeffrey Tambor
Genre: Drama / Romance / Fantasy / Mystery
Tagline: Meet Joe Black: Sooner or Later Everyone Does

This is a truly moving picture, a quality production with deep messages conveyed almost artistically. William Parish on his 65-year-old birthday gets visited by Death in the disguise of a handsome stranger, Joe Black. He proposes a deal: Parish should be his guide in giving him a glimpse of the human life and he will delay his passing away. Nobody knows who this stranger is but they can all deduct that he is a very important person for Parish. Joe Black develops certain interests in life and love, particularly in Parish’ beautiful daughter, Susan.

In the three hours – which fly by in an instant, the film transmits essential and deep thoughts about life, death, happiness and most importantly - I cannot appreciate enough - its portrayal of love. Just consider these few lines to see what I mean “Love is passion, obsession, someone you can’t live without. If you don’t start with that, what are you going to end up with? Fall head over heels. Find someone you can love like crazy and who’ll love you the same way back.” Absolutely my conception about what love is or should be. The actors are excellent. Anthony Hopkins is convincing as always, and Brad Pitt as Death, conveys perfectly the innocent wonder and the joy of discovering elements of the human life. The process of learning is interesting; he seems so clumsy and naïve and still powerful. I also liked the way Death is humanized, being able to feel love and experience all kinds of emotions. He doesn’t seem like a malevolent force at all. Brad Pitt is perfect for the role and together with Claire Forlani there surely is some powerful chemistry on the screen; two perfectly beautiful people. I have never seen in any movie such intense, passionate and sensual scenes of a sexual nature. The soundtrack absolutely contributes to the flesh creeping sensation; Paul Newman’s music is perfectly appropriate and that recurrent melody is beyond beautiful. Also, the art and photography direction is great just as the editing. The movie is pretty slow-paced,there is a lot of silence in it, which might be a problem for some people; I found it even deeper owing to its pace. It left the viewer time to reflect and to fully absorb and savour what the film had to give. The plot seemed to have no flaws. The whole movie seemed flawless!

This is an emotional, captivating and deep masterpiece. For some reason, it gave me the sense of my first love. It left me full of emotions, mesmerized me and kept me thinking about it for days. The movie about life and death: “If we’re lucky, maybe, we’ve got some nice pictures to take with us.”