Review of Meet Joe Black (1998) by Shierly H — 21 Apr 2010

So close to being 5 stars--terribly funny at times, at other times terribly sad. Stellar acting performances throughout--particularly from Pitt and Hopkins and Tambor. Most surprisingly the movie runs nearly 3 hours, but never feels like it is dragging out or moving slowly or anything.

Unfortunately, some ridiculous dialog in the final 20 minutes takes away the movie's chance at 5 stars. A significant chunk of bad dialog anywhere else would not have been so bad, but in the end of the movie it makes the conclusion feel like a desperate quickie attempt to somehow wrap the movie up. The ambiguous comments like "somehow we'll figure it out" between the two romantic characters (Pitt and Forlani), considering the events that led up to it, feel totally ridiculous. She's not stupid--she's figured out, to a certain extent, that the Pitt she met in the coffee shop and the Pitt that ended up glued to her father are separate consciousnesses. Thus, a more appropriate conversation would go something like, "The last thing you remember is leaving me at the coffee shop?" "Yeah, it's weird... how long ago was that...".......etc...... "so what is your name, anyway?" (because she can't keep calling him Joe Black).

Sigh. Still, a great movie--just a somewhat flawed great movie.