Friday - Movies
The Age
Thursday February 7, 2008
Meet Joe Black (1998)
Channel Ten, 1.05amPerhaps one of the most critically panned movies in history. Director Martin Brest was lampooned for having made a vanity project as expensive and catastrophic commercially as Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate. Some even suggested Brad Pitt quit acting, given the level of his performance. But Meet Joe Black is a masterpiece, one of the most intelligent, subtle and deeply moving films of the past decade. It centres on William Parrish (Anthony Hopkins), an extremely wealthy man in what he sees as the prime of his life. He is most unhappy, therefore, when visited by Joe Black (Brad Pitt), a handsome angel of death. William is keen to stay on Earth a little longer, at least until he can come to terms with and accept his passage. A deal is done, with Joe assuming the role of a new business associate to keep an eye on him. Hopkins and Pitt are both beyond praise, the filmmaking craft astonishing and Emmanuel Lubezki's cinematography at a level you will probably not see again in a lifetime. A family friend recently saw this a few hours before he died; cinema could not have offered him a more tender and comforting farewell. -- SCOTT MURRAY
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