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By
NICK ZEGARAC
"Meet Joe Black" is a film
riddled in contradictions. After starting out with
a genuinely thought-provoking premise (what would
happen if death took on a human form and came to
earth to learn about life from its next victim?)
the plot comes to a grinding halt when Death -- in
the body of Brad Pitt -- falls for his victim's
daughter Susan (Claire Forlani). Anthony Hopkins
is Bill Perish, Death's next intended and, as
usual, delivers a performance of quiet, poignant
introspection and rectitude.
After some laborious inner conflict between these
three principals (Susan loves Death, but doesn't
actually know who he is, Death wants to claim
Susan for his own but can't without killing her,
Bill doesn't want Death to kill Susan) and some
totally extemporaneous scenes that have nothing to
do with the central plot (Death visits and
revisits an elderly Jamaican woman dying of cancer
before claiming her life), "Meet Joe Black"
concludes with a knockout birthday celebration
sequence. There is such an emotional swell built
into this sequence -- in which Bill tells Susan
and his other daughter, Allison (Marcia Gay
Harden) that they have brought more meaning and
joy into his life that he had no right to expect
-- that I caught myself getting choked up.
Fine performances from Hopkins, Harden, Forlani
and Jeffrey Tambor (as Quince, looking strangely
like a Dr. Phil knock-off) cannot excuse the fact
that Brad Pitt is thoroughly out of his element as
the central character. Pitt's interpretation of
Death is one of stunted bewilderment, often taking
excruciatingly long pauses before getting his
point across. In the latter half of the film he
somewhat improves in his performance, but
nevertheless he is dry, uninspired and generally a
complete bore to watch.
Director Martin Brest, intent on delivering an
epic (the film runs just a bit over three hours)
instead gives his audiences two movies in one --
neither as rich or compelling as the gala party
sequence that masterfully draws all the plot
elements to a successful close. I am thus
conflicted in my review. "Meet Joe Black" has its
points to make and its merits to extol but it
falls flat, then dies, then is miraculously
resurrected, making one -- if not forget -- at
least forgive some of the painful moments that
paved the way to the finale.
This is the "Ultimate Edition" of a DVD already
made available from Universal. All the studio has
done on this occasion is to slap the same transfer
into some snazzy new packaging while adding some
throwaway extras on a second disc that one could
easily live without if one already owns the first
DVD incarnation. Image quality on this DVD is the
same as the previously released DVD. At times the
picture is quite solid, with excellent color
fidelity, shadow and contrast delineation and
solid black levels. Unfortunately, quite often the
picture gets bogged down with pixelization that
really breaks apart background detail. There's
also some minor edge enhancement and some slight
shimmering of background and fine detail. Contrast
levels can, in a few instances, be too low. The
audio is 5.1 and well balanced, with explosive
bass levels that will really give your rear
speakers a work out.
The big, big, extra that Universal throws us on
disc two is "Death Takes A Holiday," a Paramount
flick with Frederic March playing Death coming
down to Earth to study mankind. This is a dated
movie with overly theatrical performances and a
generally middle-of-the-road budget that really
makes the whole excursion pretty tacky. As for the
quality of the transfer, the grayscale is
adequately balanced, but with chips and scratches
on the original negative. Contrast levels are
often too low. The audio is mono and strident. |
