MEET JOE BLACK: Blu-ray (Universal 1998) Universal Home Video
A little known, and even
less fondly remembered romantic/melodrama, Death Takes A Holiday (1934) was the
inspiration behind Martin Brest’s Meet
Joe Black (1998); a monumentally overblown, undeniably glossy looking, but
glacially slow moving remake co-starring Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins. The two
had previously worked together on Legends
of the Fall (1994). Perhaps with box office cache firmly in mind, and weary
of how a three hour epic about love transcending time and space could so easily
be seen as self-indulgent tripe, Brest chose instead to surround his two stars
with a winning supporting cast that included Marcia Gay Harden, Claire Forlani,
Jeffrey Tambor and Jake Weber – all of them skilled thespians.
The one thing Brest hadn’t
counted on was a thoroughly leaden performance by Pitt, in the dual role as the
young nameless man Forlani’s Susan Parrish meets inside a local coffee shop,
and ‘Joe’ – actually ‘Death’ - masquerading in human form in the hopes of
gleaning all it can from the foreign concept of ‘life’. Alas it proved
everything, with Pitt so wooden and ill at ease as ‘Joe’ that he all but
diffused what little dramatic arch remained in the story.
The even greater tragedy of
the exercise is that there was so much to admire throughout the film, from the
aforementioned supporting cast’s believable star turns to Emmanuel Lubezki’s
gleaming cinematography and Dante Ferretti’s production design, that it all
might have clung together rather nicely if not for the paralytic screenplay by
Bo Goldman and Kevin Wade that seems incapable of tying together any of the
loose ends without creating more loopholes along the way.
Plot wise, we entered the
moneyed world of communications mogul, William ‘Bill’ Parrish (Anthony
Hopkins), a beloved figure about to celebrate his 65th birthday in
lavish style on his Long Island estate, thanks to the meticulous nattering of
his eldest daughter, Allison (Marcia Gay Harden), who is also married one of
Parrish Communication’s executives, Quince (Jeffrey Tambor). Allison
desperately craves her father’s affections. But recently Bill has been distracted
by a takeover that threatens to swallow up his life’s work. Moreover, Bill has
convinced himself that another member of his executive team, Drew (Jake Webber)
is his fair-haired boy to stop this corporate cannibalization.
Bill’s younger daughter,
and his favourite – Susan (Claire Forlani) - is a doctor working in New York
City. She too has taken an interest in Drew…well, sort of. When Bill asks Susan
about her intensions towards Drew he receives a rather cryptic and
dispassionate reply, prompting Bill to impart some fatherly advice that he
hopes Susan will choose to live by: that life is meaningless without true love.
Lightning should strike.
A short while later Susan
meets her romantic ideal (Brad Pitt) at a coffee shop across the street from
the hospital. New to the city, this nameless young man engages Susan in some
meaningful conversation about relationships that ends with “Who knows? Lightning could strike.” Remembering her father’s
words, Susan nervously parts company, secretly hoping to muster up enough guts
to ask this enigmatic stranger out on a date. Regrettably, before this can
happen, the man is fatally struck down in a horrific car accident without Susan’s
knowledge.
A short while later the
man, whose body has actually been stolen by Death, shows up at William’s lavish
penthouse. Death reveals to Bill that his time on earth is limited and that the
best either of them can hope for is a few days respite before the inevitable. Death
wishes to learn about life and has chosen Bill as his guide. To shield his
family from the true identity of this stranger, Bill rechristens Death as Joe
Black – a new member of his inner business circle that immediately rubs Drew
the wrong way.
But Death is unprepared for
the depth of Drew’s human jealousy, and more confused by Susan’s obvious
attraction to him, unable to react to her as the young man whose body its
stolen would have. This disconnect between the man she thought she knew and the
one currently occupying a place inside her father’s home, understandably leaves
Susan feeling slightly jilted. Nevertheless, she is determined to pursue Joe
for herself.
Joe explains to Bill that
should he chose to expose the truth about him to Susan he – Death – will have
no choice but to claim them both into the underworld. In the meantime, Bill’s
attentions are diverted by a new threat to his company. It seems Drew is an
inside man for the competition, who has seized this particular moment to
attempt a hostile corporate takeover of Parrish Communications with himself as
the newly appointed Chairman of the Board. Inadvertently, Drew has gained
access to highly secret corporate files thanks to Quince’s ineptitude.
Emotionally torn by his
blunder, Quince confides in Joe what has happened and Joe takes it upon himself
to set things right for the future before claiming Bill’s life. He confronts
Drew in Bill’s presence, and with the entire board of directors listening in on
an open phone line. Cocky, Drew proudly confesses that no one will ever be able
to figure out his treason against the company. The board begs to differ and
Bill fires Drew on the spot, thereby thwarting the takeover bid and keeping
Parrish Communications in his family.
Now Bill’s concern shifts
to what will become of Susan. She has obviously fallen for Joe. The wrinkle
herein is that Death has also discovered love and has decided to take Susan
with them to the underworld. Bill attempts to manage the situation; then pleads
with Death to reconsider this decision.
It is the eve of Bill’s
elaborate 65th birthday party and Joe agrees to allow him this one
last hurrah before crossing over to the other side. At the party, Bill and
Allison reconcile their differences. Knowing that Susan has always been the
favoured daughter, Allison tells her father, “Never mind about favourites. The point is, you’ve always been mine.” The two share an intimate tearful moment
before Bill takes to the dance floor with Susan. He tells her not to worry
about the future or him. That everything will be alright if she retains her
optimism and looks forward rather than back. This, she agrees to do, despite
having been asked earlier to give up Joe.
To Death’s credit, Joe also
agrees to leave Susan behind. As fireworks explode overhead, Bill walks
valiantly at Death’s side, their shadows vanishing beyond a footbridge on the
property as Susan looks on. But only a few moments later, Joe reappears to
Susan. Or has he? No. In fact, Death has decided to give back the young man
Susan first met inside the coffee shop. The two are reunited with the
presumption that they will go forward and become husband and wife.
This last act is what
really sold Meet Joe Black for me.
It is impossible not to develop an emotional lump in the throat as this lavish
party sequence unfolds. For once the screenplay allows the raw human center of
the piece to shine through. We get a meaningful speech from Bill to his guests
in which he muses how the years have flown by.
We experience the reunion
and re-strengthening of the Parrish familial bonds through Bill’s love of his
children and their obvious reciprocation of that love. And most satisfying of
all, we get a superbly dramatic underscoring by Thomas Newman that at once
evokes the majesty of life’s most precious moments with the finality we must all eventually face someday. For once, the pieces in this intricate puzzle
fit so poignantly together that they yield a moment of pure and thoroughly
satisfying movie magic.
If only the rest of Meet Joe Black had lived up to this
last half hour it might have been a very fine and enduring piece of cinema art.
Regrettably, the first two thirds desperately struggle to find their dramatic
moments. Once Death enters the room as Joe the narrative comes to a screeching
halt with too many languishing misfires. It takes too long for Joe to find his
way in the human world. There’s too much contemplation of basic concepts about
life that have no pertinence or place within the central theme and plot.
Joe’s musing over Drew’s
claim, that in life only ‘death and taxes’ are assured commodities, is
excruciatingly overplayed, as is Susan’s seduction of Joe that inadvertently
introduces Death to the pleasures of the flesh.
And then there is an utterly pointless sequence in which Joe, visiting
the hospital to see Susan, is exposed by a Jamaican woman (Lois Kelly-Miller)
who clearly recognizes him as Death and believes that he has come to claim
her. In a later scene, Joe does put this
woman out of her pain and physical suffrage in a sequence meant to illustrate
how Death has changed its view on life and the living, to recognize the sadness
of losing someone.
These scenes might have
been more affecting had Brad Pitt not taken the route of portraying Death as
an utterly cold monolith. But the faults in his performance are only partly to
blame. The screenplay is woefully at a loss to provide the actor with any sort
of witticisms or even a hint of other worldly charm to play off. Together,
these shortcomings rob what is essentially the film’s central performance – the
linchpin of the story. As such, the audience is forced to deflect its
curiosities onto the Parrish clan, who are mostly a house divided until the
aforementioned final act. This is indeed a pity, because what we’re left with
then is an elegant entertainment minus its core; a film that looks very fine –
and, at times even rises to the occasion of entertaining us – only to slink
back into the mire of that stately elegance without leaving any sort of lasting
impression once the houselights have come back up.
Universal Home Video’s
Blu-ray release is bare bones and seems to have been derived from the same
flawed digital elements used in the DVD mastering from some years ago.
Everything tightens up in this 1080p transfer and colours really pop. But the
edge effects that plagued the DVD are still present on the Blu-ray,
particularly in long shots of the New York skyline or strong linear lines in
cornices and mouldings inside the Parrish Long Island mansion (actually Adrich
Mansion in Rhode Island). The film has an appropriate texture of grain. Less
discerning eyes will excuse the edge effects, but they are present, making for
a less than perfect visual presentation.
The audio has been
remastered to 5.1 DTS with dialogue sounding as crisp as ever and Thomas
Newman’s score soaring to new heights. Good stuff here. This offering jettisons
‘Death
Takes A Holiday’ from its supplements. The 1934 movie was an extra on
Universal’s Ultimate Edition of Meet Joe
Black on DVD. Universal retains the Martin Brest audio commentary, as well
as the very short making of featurette and montage of still photographs, plus
the original theatrical trailer.
FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)
3
VIDEO/AUDIO
3
EXTRAS
2
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