8 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, November 13, 1998
'Black' plot spreads itself thin
By Bryan Lark
Daily Arts Writer
It's a three-hour romance whose
lead character just happens to be
Death in the human form of Brad
Pitt. Swoon.
It's a gorgeous spectacle from
Martin Brest, Oscar-nominated
director of "Scent of a Woman."
Gasp in awe.
It's a sentimental musing about
who and what death is and also what
it means to truly live. Cue the violins.
What it is not, however, is an espe-
Meet Joe
Black
**I
At Briarwod
and Showcase
00
a
cially great
movie or an epic
tale for the ages,
which it tries so
desperately to
be.
"Meet Joe
Black," also
starring Anthony
Hopkins and
Claire Forlani, is
simply an enjoy-
able entertain-
ment, an old
Hollywood-style
seat-filler with
of comedic and
ence rapt for a long period of time.
Make that a really long period of
time.
In a much shorter form, "Meet Joe
Black" could've been a classic.
It has all the trappings of vintage
cinema romance: a clever script, a
top-notch, touching performance by
a leading man who has palpable
chemistry with his leading lady, an
A-list supporting cast and vistas
worth at least $90 million.
But "Black" dwells too long on the
longing glances between its leads,
leaving little to the imagination and
packs in one too many subplots -
the one with all the corporate balder-
dash and the one with Brad Pitt
speaking in a Jamaican accent to a
dying woman should be among the
first to hit the cutting room floor.
As for the main plot, it's a rather
engaging fantasy, meaning suspend
your disbelief at the door.
Billionaire * William Parrish
(Hopkins), on the eve of his 65th
birthday, begins experiencing chest
pains at the same time hallucinations
- quite brilliantly filmed and edited
hallucinations - of a voice whisper-
ing the answer to an unasked ques-
tion, "Yes. Yes."
enough flourishes
visual inspiration to hold the audi-
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Meanwhile, his daughter Dr. Susan
Parrish (Forlani) is about to settle for
her daddy's weaselly right-hand man
Drew (Jake Weber), when lightning
strikes as she happens upon a sweet-
talking stranger in coffee shop (Pitt)
and starts wondering if he's Mr.
Right.
Both of the Parrish's questions are
answered when Death knocks on
their door, having taken over the body
of Brad Pitt.
Naturally, this creates problems
for both as William knows exactly
who he is and Susan thinks she does,
but Joe Black, as he decides to be
called, has no recollection of their
coffee shop rendezvous.
When Death demands to be shown
around by William and becomes suit-
or to Susan, family and friends raise
suspicion, William becomes enraged
and the ultra-hot lovin' begins.
All this takes place in the most beau-
tiful and largest Manhattan apartment
ever to be stamped "rent-controlled"
and an equally impressive seaside
estate, both shot on the best-looking
days New York has ever seen.
This is all a more-than-pleasant
backdrop courtesy of Robert
Guerra's art direction and the so-bril-
liant-it's-nearly-edible cinematogra-
phy by Dante Spinotti, the man who
gave the world "The Age of
Innocence"'s 19th-Century New York
and the 1953 of "L.A. Confidential."
And the stars aren't that difficult
to look at either. Everyone will want
Brad Pitt in some way after seeing
him in all his Robert Redford splen-
dor, looking charmingly bemused
and often licking a spoonful of
peanut butter.
Claire Forlani isn't far behind her
sexually chunky co-star. Featured in
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thankless roles in "Mallrats" and
"The Rock," Forlani finds a great role
and her coming out party in "Meet
Joe Black" and the camera just eats,
the secretly British beauty up. Sorry
guys, no peanut butter involved.
Hopkins is solid as usual, as is
Marcia Gay Harden as attention-
starved Parrish daughter, Allison.
But the best supporting honors go
to Jeffrey Tambor as Quince,
William's son-in-law and an amus-
ingly unwilling co-conspirator in
William's downfall.
But the film stumbles in the insuffer-
ably one-dimensional presence of Jake
Weber, who, as the villainous Drew,
may as well be twisting his mustache
and yelling, "Curses, foiled again."
Other stumbling blocks include -
well, there's actually only one large
stumbling block - the much dis-
cussed issue of the film's duration.
"Meet Joe Black" takes for granted
that we're loving every minute of its
experience, throwing us detail after
detail, not realizing that some details,
including everything involving Drew
and/or birthday party preparations,
make the audience count every
minute.
When it reveals its gooey romantic
center, "Meet Joe Black" is at its cin-
ematically tastiest.
Much like the peanut butter*Joe
Black loves almost as much as Susan,
"Meet Joe Black" is an utterly dc
cious treat - it just spreads itsclf a
little too thin.
Courtesy of Universal Pt s
Claire Forlani and Brad Pitt dance with death and romance In "Meet Joe Black."
'Mavis' teaches mastering typing
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"Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing s
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So put yourself on the path to bl4z-
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