MEET JOE BLACK (1998) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1998 Ted Prigge
Director: Martin Brest Writers: Ron Osborn, Jeff Reno, Kevin Wade, and Bo Goldman Starring: Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Claire Forlani, Jake Weber, Marcia Gay Harden, Jeffrey Tambor, David S. Howard, Lois Kelly-Miller
Many of the criticisms aimed at "Meet Joe Black" have been that it's too long, too maudlin, too uninsightful for a movie about death. And I'm not going to rebuke those as much as I am going to say that those aren't exactly negative pointers. Yes, "Meet Joe Black" is three hours when it could have been two. Yes, "Meet Joe Black" is melodramatic and long-winded when it could be light and easier-to-digest. And yes, it's less like "The Seventh Seal" and more like a Jackie Collins book in terms of how insightful it is. But all I can say is no, it's not a great film, and its mere 45 or so million dollar gross is a sign of Brad Pitt's dwindling popularity as far as the cinema goes, but it's also engaging and entertaining in a strange, pleasing way. I like that this film is drawn-out and three hours long...in fact, the three hours don't exactly fly by as much as they pass by without pain. Those who are complaining about three hours being a tough sit are those who can't stand any movie that's longer than and hour and a half and three hours means an hour and a half they don't have to complain about how long it was.
All I can say is "Meet Joe Black" held my interest while never involving me too deeply that if I had never seen it, I wouldn't regret it. It is, though, beatiful to look at. The cinematography is some of the best of the year, and the production design is almost operatic in its lavishness. This all gives it a dour, reserved tone, with nothing but earth colors as our entire world, and Martin Brest's direction is slow and stately, as if he were telling his story like a great novel inspired by D.H. Lawrence. Combine this with a mix of pretentious and over-handed messages about life and death, an ironic love story, and a bizarre sense of wit, and you basically have "Meet Joe Black."
The story of death visiting a dying billionaire and falling in love with his daughter has been done before (in fact, this is a pseudo-remake of "Death Takes a Holiday" starring Frederic March), but Brest tells it like it was the greatest story of all time, yet with a lack of security apparent in its numerous almost-self-concious asides that this is all a big joke. Death, dubbed Joe Black, falls madly in love with the billionaire's daughter, and she with him, much to the dismay of the billionaire who is not only selfishly mad that the being who's taking him away from life is also making his beloved kin feel so alive, and Brest milks this for all the melodrama that he possibly can, but then pulls back at the last second to make a joke about it all (one accidental example of this is a death scene in the beginning which starts out poignant, but ends up being hands-down this year's most hilarious unintentional laugh).
By refusing to push the envelope all the way, and really submerge the film in either being a completely funny film or a completely melodramatic film (either, which would make for a great film, if handled correctly from that point on), he sits on the fence, and never allows the dramatic saps in the audience to ever get their full money's worth, or the more cynical ones to either. Since, depending on my mood, I can be either, "Meet Joe Black" worked for me, but not exactly in spades. Though the film is never really erratic in its mood swings, it's never disappointing, thanks to the way it's paced, but it's not exactly fulfilling either. Though we're pretty sure of the daughter's love for Joe, we're never sure of Joe's.
This is pretty much attributed to the respective performances. The daughter, played by Claire Forlaini, looks at Joe with her gorgeous eyes and shows no doubt in her mind that she is completely enthralled by him, and every time she's around him, seems to be just about to break down into his arms, while when she's not around him, seems content in her individuality. Joe, played by Brad Pitt, is pretty much on the contrary. Obsessed with making Joe a complete fish out of water, Pitt alienates his character from everyone else's, going as far as looking completely relaxed in his awkwardness and speaking in a slow and straight-forward manner. And throughout the film, he puts on an ignorant half-smile, as if he were a completely unaffected by everything that happens to him, so that when he finally does bed Forlaini, he has the exact same expression on his face that he does when he first tastes peanut butter (which brings out the third funniest post-coital comment I've ever heard in a movie - the first two being from "Annie Hall": "I think I'm getting some feeling back in my jaw" and "As Balsac said, 'there goes another novel.'").
Maybe this is what the film was going for - that the usual human emotions that take up the different realms of satisfaction aren't going to be different for someone who doesn't know anything about our own society. But whatever the point was, Pitt's performance just doesn't completely work. He never seems to be going through any real changes, and we soon just give up on his character and look at the others' and how they're affected by what happens. Forlaini is rather magnificent, at least for a big budget romantic comedy like this, and Anthony Hopkins, saddled with the role of the dying billionaire, brings the kind of Shakespearean-actor depth to his role that he brought to this summer's "The Mask of Zorro." The two are always wonderful to watch, as are Jeffrey Tambor (playing a business associate-cum-relative by marriage) and Jake Weber (playing the mischevious and diabolical boyfriend to Forlaini with delicious sarcasm - you hate him but you'd be heartbroken if he was ever defeated, and he is).
In fact, everything in "Meet Joe Black" is beautiful to look at, even "Sir" Hopkins (so much that afterwards I finally rented the Mamet-scripted "The Edge" just to watch him speak Mamet's wonderful dialogue), so much that I couldn't help but be involved in it. It's silly and predictable, but it has the charm of a trash novel you read while on vacation: you pick it up, are involved in the character's lives, and when it's done with, you place it on a bookshelf never to be picked up or thought of deeply again, unless you're writing a review of it.
MY RATING (out of 4): ***
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