As both the young man in the coffee shop and as “Joe Black” (the name given him by Parrish), he is intensely aware of himself-too aware.
We're distracted, anyway, by the way Brad Pitt plays the role. A job like that, you want a more experienced man.
#JOE MY NAME IS JOE RARE HOW TO#
This Death doesn't even know what peanut butter tastes like, or how to kiss. Isn't Death an emissary from God? Shouldn't he know these things? He's been around a long time (one imagines him breaking the bad news to amoebas). The body of the young man is now occupied by Death, who has come to inform Parrish that his end is near. That night at dinner, she is startled to find him among her father's guests. They confess they really like each other. Lightning makes, at the very least, a near miss. A few hours later, in a coffee shop, she meets a stranger (Brad Pitt). He tells his beloved younger daughter Susan ( Claire Forlani) that he likes her fiance but doesn't sense that she truly loves him: “Stay open. On the brink of his 65th birthday, he senses that death is near. Less is more.Īs the movie opens, a millionaire named William Parrish ( Anthony Hopkins) is pounded by a heart attack, the soundtrack using low bass chords to assault the audience. The movie contains elements that make it very good, and a lot of other elements besides. That there is also time for scenes about sibling rivalry and a corporate takeover is not necessarily a good thing. And it is a meditation on the screen presence of Brad Pitt. It is a movie about a woman who falls in love with a concept. “Meet Joe Black” is a movie about a rich man trying to negotiate the terms of his own death.