Meet Joe Black

Death, in the nattily-attired form of Brad Pitt, decides he wants to make up for an eternity spent in his lonely task by experiencing human pleasures. You may feel the Reaper has made up for plenty of long time by the end of Martin Brest's bloated three-hour spectacle, in which pregnant pauses and portentous glances are supposed to amount to epic scope. The real shame is that there's two hours of solid material trying to escape from this loose remake of Death Takes a Holiday, a relationship comedy with a creepy edge as Death inhabits the human body (Mr. Pitt's) that has already charmed an heiress (Claire Forlani). Superfluous subplots drag the film down, and a couple of scenes between Pitt and Forlani could qualify as short subjects by the time they ramble to a close. That consistent lack of narrative economy dooms Meet Joe Black in spite of strengths such as Anthony Hopkins' performance as an intense tycoon and Emmanuel Lubezki's luminous photography. Unlike the more successful City of Angels, this film doesn't have the sense to treat its story as weepy transcendental melodrama instead of as an Oscar-season Message Movie. Life on earth certainly could have seemed more vibrant, and less like an endurance test. Not recommended. (S. Renshaw)