Review of Meet Joe Black (1998) by Richard D — 09 Dec 2013

This is the type of supernatural romantic comedy that Hollywood did so well in the 1930s & 1940s. They would take this plot, populate the film with appealing stars and character actors, and bring the whole thing in at 90 minutes.

In fact, Hollywood did that with this story ... "Death Takes a Holiday" in 1934. This film has appealing stars and talented character actors ... but it is 3 hours long, and it makes you feel every minute of it.

It's what playing a 1 1/2 hour film at half speed feels like. It's correspondingly massively serious and ponderous everywhere it should be light and breezy. It's justifiably the first major nail in the coffin for Brest's career.