I am presently on vacation and staying at a friends home. She rented a movie for us to enjoy last night. It was one I had never heard of but the line up of Anthony Hopkins and Brad Pitt seemed like a winner for sure. It was 178 minutes long, so we got ourselves set for a long evening of great entertainment. Well when it was finally over, we both just scratched our heads and said "I don't get it".
This movie, Meeting Joe Black stars Anthony Hopkins as an accomplished business man, named William Parrish, who is about to celebrate his 65th birthday. Days prior to his birthday he starts hearing a voice talking to him. He sees nothing and no one else hears this voice. What it is saying makes no sense for a while and what the voice says is very difficult to understand. The character suffers chest pain at the office one day, and while suffering the voice comes to him again. Finally at home just days before his birthday, the voice takes on a form and reveals himself to be "Death". Death agrees to wait till his 65th birthday party, which was planned as a huge gala event by one of his daughters.
The doctor daughter, Susan Parrish, played by Claire Forlani, is a wimp woman who seems to have trouble relating to the male gender as far as fulfilling relationship goes. She is dating one of her dad's employees named Drew, and even admits she may marry him one day. Her father tells her not to marry unless she is deliriously happy and in love. From all signs of her relationship w/ Drew, she is settling for him, rather than truly loving him. While eating breakfast at a coffee shop one morning, she meets a gorgeous man who is new in town and manages to take her breathe away. They admit their attraction to each other, but upon leaving to go their separate ways, this man is hit by a car. Susan had never even learned his name.
When "Death" reveals himself in the form of a man, played by Brad Pitt, he is the gorgeous man Susan met at the coffee shop. Death has taken on the form of a man, a dead man. He is named Joe Black by Parrish, while introducing him to a board meeting at work. Joe has no ability to act as a normal human since he is not one. He must learn basic habits such as eating, sitting, conversation, and even up to and including making love. Joe is at William Parrish side at every turn, and does not leave his side often. Joe masters the blank empty look very well. When he does venture out on his own...he learns to enjoy peanut butter, and even to kiss and feel emotions. When Susan meets Joe Black, she is taken back by his new demeanor because it is very different from the personable man she had met at the coffee shop. But needless to say she falls in love w/ Joe Black anyways.
The business owned by William Parrish, is faltering under his watchful but distracted mind once Death makes his appearance into his life. His dutiful employee, Drew, at this point sees his chance to push out the boss for a take over of sorts. His accomplice in this crime is Parrish's son-in-law Quince. Board meeting is privately held w/ the exact point being to push out Parrish. The sticking point that makes the board agreeable to the take over is Parrish's change of mind over a merger. Well the best part of the entire movie happens when it is all discovered and handled by Joe Black and William Parrish. Too bad the movie didn't have more of this humor and excitement.
While Parrish is losing his business, his daughter Susan has fallen deeply and soundly in love w/ Joe Black and he has learned about love and fallen deeply in love w/ Susan. Many problems of course arise about this in itself. How does Death have emotions and fall in love? The whole scenario is so very hokey!
The movie ends with the gala 65th birthday party that his other daughter plans and holds and has lived to do. She seems to have no other point in life. The party is a success and tux's and evening gowns are the dress for the eve. Fireworks end the party and the ending is where this movie then proceeds to confuse me totally. I won't reveal the ending but wish to be clued in on the exact meaning of how it transpires....maybe then I could understand the point of making a movie 2 minutes shy of 3 hours.
This movie from my standpoint could have been shorten by half and still had the same points made and impact at the end. It was hard to want to sit and watch the entire movie....I made frequent excuses to get up and leave it for a few moments....and never felt I missed a single event. The acting by Anthony Perkins of course was impeccable as always. Brad Pitt was his usual gorgeous self. He pulled off the blank look and actions very well. The other actors/actresses were good enough in the movie, but none stood out as spectacular.....just as no scene stood out as spectacular other than the "gotcha" scene w/ Drew being caught.
I am glad I didn't pay to see this movie in the theaters, and seeing it on video allowed the pause button to be pushed, to escape briefly the slow story line of the movie ...... and shake my legs back to life. (plus refill my wine glass)
Bill Parrish (Anthony Hopkins) has it all: success, wealth and power. Days before his 65th birthday, he receives a visit from a mysterious stranger, J...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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