Ten Stars or Less

Meet Joe Black is a reimagined movie based on Death Takes a Holiday (1934). Brad Pitt is Joe Black, Death in human form after a freak accident takes his life. He meets up with Bill Parrish (Anthony Hopkins), who is experiencing some health concerns but continues to live his life with no regrets. Joe falls for a girl named Susan (Claire Forlani), who, as fate would have it, is Bill’s daughter. As time ticks away, these three main characters must come to terms with what fate has in store for all of them.

I absolutely adore this movie. It has been one of my favourites since 1999. I don’t even care that the run time is close to three hours because the performances from everyone are well worth our time.

Numerous storylines unfold, allowing us to pick and choose which ones to get heavily invested in. Personally, I fell in love with Joe and Susan. Their relationship, as unorthodox as it sounds, is one of my favourite movie couples of all-time. I’ve always disliked how Drew (Jack Weber) tried to sabotage Bill’s business behind his back. While another significant underlying storyline is that of Allison (Marica Gay Harden), who spends the entire movie stressing about her father’s upcoming birthday party. Every character is given plenty of time to develop, which allows us to get heavily invested in their outcomes, some of which could bring you tears.

The set, the characters, and everything else around them are exquisite. Everyone is classy and never throws it in your face. The film explores and plays with many emotions so that you can see that at the end of the day, we are all human with the same wants and desires. There is a deep meaning to Meet Joe Black, and that is how vulnerable we can be.

The music by Thomas Newman compliments every scene of the film because it sounds like he’s working with the big band who performs at the huge birthday party. The words timeless and classic would never describe the movie, but those words could describe many aspects of the film.

Meet Joe Black was my favourite movie for many years. It remains one of my top five films of all-time. I fell in love with it and consider it a great film that will never get the recognition it deserves.

It may have taken me forever to review this film, but maybe this whole time, I’ve been looking for the right words. 10/10