MEET JOE BLACK

Bill Parrish, media tycoon, loving father and still a human being, is about to celebrate his 65th birthday. One morning, he is contacted by the Inevitable - by hallucination, as he thinks. Later, Death itself enters his home and his life, personified in a man's body: Joe Black has arrived. His intention was to take Bill with him, but accidentally, Joe's former host and Bills beautiful daughter Susan have already met. Joe begins to develop certain interest in life on earth as well as in Susan, who has no clue who she's flirting with.

Directed by Martin Brest,played by Brad Pitt,Anthony Hopkins,Claire Forlani.The film actually starts in a coffe shop where Pitt meets with Forlani(Susan) and starts a conversation with that beatiful women talking about the attributes of his future wife or what he could do to make her happy.The two both likes each other as they confess to each other in a relatively in a semi-serious manner.Both go their way but look back to each other but not at the exact time so they cant take the first step for a relationship or even more a love.That scene was more than great as it breaks the hearts as it continues by the bus crashing Pitt while still thinking whether to go after her or say something,very much confused and unaware he is in the middle of the road.There the death who wants a human body gets Pitt's and becomes Joe Black who comes to take the life of a tycoon Parish (Hopkins).In a Human Body,Death(Joe Black)enters Parish's house after a strange conversation which makes Parish realize that his time has come...

This movie is an emotional love story: one might like it, if imaginative enough to feel the same way, considering an angel of death falls in love with a human being and a sad story of a loving father whoose time has come and marches to his death.The most negative part about the movie is that kept longer then it is supposed to be.The running time is about 3 hours for a story like that while 1 and a half would have been enough.But the film is still watchable with it's memorable scenes which is the one mentioned above and the second where Parish marching to his death accepting his destiny,with a smile on his face which shows the death itself in it's least scary form.Th actors perforrmances especially by Hopkins's is beyond the film especially in the last scene and even that makes the movie watchable..

"The heart of the film can be found in Hopkins' William Parrish, a dynamic man who has been chosen by Death for observation as the best humanity has to offer. As Hopkins plays him, with tremendous verve and sympathy, he is all this, but the character also seems impossibly idealized, truly without flaws. Never is there an indication of the ruthlessness that must have been required to get as far as he did. He is even the perfect widower, forever living in the memory of his adored wife, without a woman to replace her".

Todd McCarthy

Variety