Joe’s presence induces some polite raised eyebrows among the members of William’s corporate board, which the next day convenes to consider a mega-merger that the principled William refuses to endorse. William’s other daughter, the too-eager-to-please Allison (Marcia Gay Harden), her affable but none-too-bright husband, Quince (Jeffrey Tambor), and Drew are also curious about the newcomer. First stop is a family dinner, where Susan is understandably disconcerted by the presence of the young man who charmed her in the coffee shop, and even more unnerved by the fact that he doesn’t behave as though he were the same guy. Thus begins a peculiar relationship in which the dazzlingly blond Joe Black follows the powerful William on all his rounds. In the communications baron’s plush library, the visitor, who goes by the name of Joe Black, informs the older man, a widower whom he has chosen for his exceptional character, that he can buy some time if he will act as his guide to all things earthly. In short order, the voice materializes to the mystified William in the guise of the fellow from the coffee shop. At the same time, his young physician daughter, Susan (Claire Forlani), who is halfheartedly involved with her father’s ambitious second-in-command, Drew (Jake Weber), has a memorable chance encounter in a coffee shop with a dashing young man (Brad Pitt) who, immediately after, is hit and killed by speeding cars. With his 65th birthday fast approaching, New York media tycoon William Parrish (Anthony Hopkins) begins hearing a strange, disembodied voice, and shortly suffers a heart seizure while being spoken to so mysteriously. No matter the new film’s failings, its inventions can represent only improvements, as the Leisen picture, itself adapted from a 1920s play, now comes off as deadly dull. Brest, who began mulling the project seriously more than 15 years ago, and his writers have taken just the central premise - of Death assuming human form for a few days to get a taste of what life is like, and falling in love along the way - and spun it in different, much more detailed ways. The uncharitable could make mileage of the issue that the film upon which “Meet Joe Black” is based, Mitchell Leisen’s 1934 Paramount release “Death Takes a Holiday,” ran just 78 minutes, except for the fact that the new picture isn’t a remake in any meaningful sense. Rarely has there been a film with so little justification for such a marathon running time much of the problem stems from the dialogue direction, which often has the actors pausing significantly for many seconds between lines.
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Here, he pushes his luck too far by extending a slim conceit to a full three hours.
Martin Brest skated on thin ice but got away with it, at least with moviegoers, when he stretched his last film, “Scent of a Woman,” out to 157 minutes.