Death takes a holiday. (Meet Joe Black (DVD))

Member Name: The Duke

Product:	Meet Joe Black (DVD)
Date:	21/01/02 (79 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some good acting, Intersting plot

Disadvantages: Too long

There's a trend going around - you must have noticed it. People don't have imaginations anymore. Surely you've noticed this?

No? OK. Take, for example, the hit parade (charts to you youngsters). Over recent years pop acts have been plundering the quality releases of old in order to garner themselves a hit - Eternal Flame by Atomic Kitten? Done by The Bangles first. They're not the only ones - Hear'say, Westlife etc. are all at it.

So what has this got to do with Meet Joe Black then? Well, it's a remake as well ? Death Takes A Holiday was made in 1934 and starred Fredric March as Death and Evelyn Venable as Grazia.

However, as with all older movies remade in recent years, it needs a bit of polish to modernise the settings and story, so out goes all the royalty bits, and in comes the modern business world.

*** Basic Plot Outline ***

Bill Parrish (Anthony Hopkins) is rapidly approaching his 65th birthday. He is adored by his two daughters, and is fighting off a hostile takeover by a rival firm. His youngest daughter, Susan (Claire Forlani) is particularly close to her father and he impresses upon her that life is too short to be careful, that she must be willing to keep her eyes open for opportunities at all times.

Shortly after getting this speech from her father, Susan comes across an interesting young man (Brad Pitt) in a coffee shop and they instantly click. They part shortly afterwards, and unbeknownst to Susan, the handsome stranger is killed.

Meanwhile, Bill Parrish is having chest trouble, and keeps hearing voices. He is unsure of he is imagining things, or if they are indeed real. But he soon shrugs it off, and gets back to work.

That night, during dinner with his two daughters and their respective partners (who also work for Parrish), Bill has an unexpected guest. He asks for the guest to be shown into the library, and excuses himself and goes to meet the g
uest. In the library, he again hears the spooky voice, but this time it's accompanied by a body.

It's the handsome stranger from the coffee shop who was talking to Susan. He informs Bill that he is, in fact, Death and the body is just a vessel for him to occupy while he is on Earth. He tells Bill that Bill is to teach him the ways of the world, and as long as he is entertained, then Bill will not die. Bill initially refuses, but Death tells him that he's not in a position to refuse and if he does refuse, then Death will visit his entire family. Reluctantly then, Bill Parrish agrees.

Death tells Parrish that he will be like a shadow to him for the remainder of his time and he can put his affairs in order while showing Death around. He?s introduced to everyone as Joe Black.

Of course, things do go somewhat awry straightaway both with the fact that Susan recognises the handsome stranger (and that he's a totally different person from the coffee shop) and the fact that Death doesn't have a clue and simple, everyday things like taking food are alien to him.

Thus starts Bill's tutelage of Death in the ways of the world, and the increasing interaction between Death and Susan.

*** The Film ***

First of all, I have to comment on the length of this film - it's a few minutes under 3 hours long. Yes, that's right, 3 hours! I mean, some people were complaining about the length of Lord of the Rings:Fellowship of the Ring, but at least the plot in that kept advancing! This film could easily have been an hour shorter without losing any of the plot details (in fact, the original is only 79 minutes long, so you have to wonder why they thought the remake should be nearly two and a half times as long!) and the plot plods along. The first time I watched this, I had to take a phone call, and came back to the film after half an hour, and was still able to follow the plot.

Now, don't ge
t me wrong, I like longer movies, but in this case there was nothing to fill 3 hours worth of screen time. Like Jackie Brown, taking an hour out of it would not have done any harm.

The story itself is quite an interesting concept, although with me being the pedant that I am, I did wonder who was filling in for Death while he was off on a holiday, or whether people simply didn't die during that time.

While the plot outline might make it sound like a very dark and serious film, there are some moments of light relief. The bit with the peanut butter, and an incident in a hospital when Joe visits Susan both spring to mind as examples of these.

*** The Actors ***

Anthony Hopkins is excellent as usual. He manages to play both the hardened media mogul and businessman and contrast that with the soft hearted and caring father.

Brad Pitt's performance is good as well - you see two sides of him. The first is as the handsome stranger in the coffee shop - chatty, friendly and warm. The second is as Death - cold, distant and menacing. Obviously, playing a cold, distant character is not really that much of a problem for any actor (with maybe the exception of the Arnold Schwarzenegger), but you do see the Death character becoming more human as the film goes on. I don't particularly rate Pitt as an actor, but like in Seven, working without outstanding talent like Morgan Freeman, and here with Hopkins, Pitt raises his game to unusually high (for him) standards.

Claire Forlani as the daughter Susan is very engaging. Although quite intelligent (she is a doctor after all) Bill still thinks she does not embrace life as much as she should. I thought Ms. Forlani was the outstanding talent in this film. She was able to bring across her headstrong, but slightly naïve and vulnerable character very well and this was evident towards the latter parts of the movie where things begin to take shape.

The other actors ar
e not really as important to the plot as those mentioned above, and I'll refrain from going into their characters in detail. However, they all do a good job.

I did find it strange that in a 3 hour movie there were only 3 main characters as such, and this is true. The other characters are put in to simply reinforce the traits of the main protagonists, and even Parrish's eldest daughter Allison (Marcia Gay Harden) only seems to be there to enforce Parrish's down to earth attitude, despite being a multi-millionaire which Susan also shows by being a doctor and her own person. Allison is a complete opposite to Susan in that she plays the rich kid who is happy living the life of a socialite, unlike her younger sister who is not relying on the family money.

*** Final thoughts ***

Well, apart from the obvious length of the movie, I have to say I quite enjoyed it. It's definitely a movie for getting comfy and curling up on the sofa for a few hours. It's not too taxing on the brain, and contains just about enough set pieces to keep you interested over the course of the film. Not outstanding by any means, but if you arrive home one night with this and a bottle of wine, your girlfriend (if applicable) will be more than happy.


*** Details ***

Main Cast:

Brad Pitt - Joe Black/Handsome Man in Coffee Shop
Anthony Hopkins - William Parrish
Claire Forlani - Susan Parrish
Jake Weber - Drew
Marcia Gay Harden - Allison
Jeffrey Tambor - Quince
David S. Howard - Eddie Sloane

Dir. Martin Brest

Year: 1998

Running time: 178 minutes.

Summary: