Plot
Media mogul Bill Parrish is contemplating a merger with another media giant. Meanwhile, his eldest daughter, Allison, is planning an elaborate 65th birthday party for him. His younger daughter Susan, a resident in internal medicine, has a relationship with Drew, a member of Bill's board.
As Bill contemplates Susan's planned marriage to Drew and realizes that she is not deeply in love, he suggests she wait to be swept off of her feet, suggesting "lightning could strike". When the company helicopter lands, he hears a mysterious voice, which he tries to ignore. Arriving in his office, Bill has sharp pains in his chest and hears the voice again, saying, "Yes."
While studying in a coffee shop, Susan meets a vibrant young man. He also says "lightning could strike", and they form a connection. Stunned, she departs without getting his name. Unbeknownst to her, directly afterward, he is struck fatally by multiple cars.
That evening, Bill hears the voice again and it summons him to a room. Slowly materializing, the voice identifies itself as "Death" and is now inhabiting the young man's body. Death explains that Bill's impassioned speech to his daughter piqued his interest. Given Bill's "competence, experience, and wisdom", Death says that for as long as Bill will be his guide on Earth, Bill will not have to die. They both return to the dinner table and under pressure to make an introduction, Bill creates an impromptu name for the young man, introducing him to the family as "Joe Black." Joe Black, having no sophisticated human qualities, doesn't seem to know how to drink or eat, or how to use food and utensils. He later wanders through the palatial house, learning to adapt.
Bill fails to keep events from going rapidly out of his control. Drew secretly conspires with Parrish Communications, capitalizing on Bill's strange behavior and reliance on Joe to convince the board of directors to vote Bill out as chairman. Using information from Bill's son-in-law, Quince, Drew pushes for merger approval which Bill now opposes.
Intrigued by Joe's naivete, Susan realizes he is very different from the young man she met in the coffee shop. She falls deeply in love, while Joe is now under the influence of human desires and a magnetic attraction to her, and they have sex. After they dress, Joe asks Susan, "What do we do now?" She replies, "It'll come to us." Bill inadvertently walks in and sees them kissing.
Bill angrily confronts Joe about his relationship with his daughter. He then suggests to Susan that Joe won't be around much longer. At Susan's hospital, Joe interacts with a terminally ill woman, who wishes to die to escape her constant physical pain. She realizes that Joe is part of her impending death. When Joe tells her that he loves Susan (whose care she is under), they discuss the meaning of life and she helps him understand the danger of meshing two worlds. When Joe asks her if she is ready to go, she accedes and soon dies.
As Bill's birthday arrives, Joe declares his intention to take Susan with him. Bill pleads with Joe to recognize the meaning of true love, especially honesty and sacrifice, and to not steal Susan's life.
At the party, knowing his death is imminent, Bill makes peace with his daughters. Susan tells Joe she has loved him since the day in the coffee shop and he hints that his time is coming to an end. Death, realizing Susan loves the man in the coffee shop and not him, is crushed. He doesn't tell her who he really is, but she seems to intuit something mystical about his identity. Struggling to comprehend the magnitude of their attraction, Susan refuses to recognize Joe as Death. He says "You know who I am". She sputters, "You're... you're Joe." He promises, "You will always have what you found in the coffee shop... I'll love you always." Joe realizes he must set aside his own desire and allow Susan to live her life.
Quince apologizes to Bill for undermining the company, and Bill forgives him. Joe helps Bill regain control of his company, exposing Drew's underhanded business dealings to the board by claiming to be an agent of the Internal Revenue Service and threatening to put Drew in jail.
In their father/daughter dance, Susan and Bill say goodbye. Fireworks begin, and on a hilltop above the party, Joe waits with tears in his eyes. Bill heads up to him, and they share their thoughts. Bill asks Joe if he should be afraid. He replies, "Not a man like you." As the fireworks explode in the distance, Susan watches Joe and her father cross a bridge at the top of the hill and descend out of sight on the other side.
Susan stands stunned as "Joe" reappears alone and bewildered. He is again the young man from the coffee shop, uninjured and not comprehending where he is. Susan realizes that her father is gone, and the magnetism that she had shared with this young man has returned. "What do we do now?" she asks. "It'll come to us," he replies, as they descend hand-in-hand toward the party.
Reception
Box office
Meet Joe Black opened in the United States and Canada on the weekend of 13-15 November 1998, and had a weekend gross of $15,017,995 ranking #3, behind The Waterboy 's second weekend and the opening of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer . [6]
While the film had a disappointing box office gross in the United States and Canada of $44,619,100, it fared much better internationally. Taking in an additional $98,321,000, the movie grossed a worldwide total of $142,940,100. [1]
As Meet Joe Black was one of the few films showing the first trailer for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace , it was reported that Star Wars fans bought tickets for the film, only to leave after the trailer showed. [7]
Critical response
Meet Joe Black received mixed reviews from critics, with most complimenting the performances but criticizing the film's three-hour length, the slow pacing and the screenplay. [8] Roger Ebert gave it three stars, but disliked the peripheral story lines and overly drawn-out ending. He concluded that despite its flaws, "there's so much that's fine in this movie". [9] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote that most of the characters were one-dimensional. [10] Anthony Hopkins received uniform praise for his performance, with Travers opining that Hopkins' Bill Parrish was the only fully realized character in the film; Mick LaSalle wrote that "Hopkins' acting is so emotionally full that the tiniest moments...ring with complexities of thought and feeling." [11] Brad Pitt, on the other hand, received a mixed response, with LaSalle calling his performance so bad "it hurts" [11] and James Berardinelli calling it "execrable". [8] Thomas Newman's score received critical acclaim; it is generally considered one of his best works. [12] [13]
Meet Joe Black earned a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Remake or Sequel. [14]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 45% approval rating on 51 reviews, with an average score of 5.60/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Meet Joe Black is pretty to look at and benefits from an agreeable cast, but that isn't enough to offset this dawdling drama's punishing three-hour runtime." [15] On Metacritic, the film received a 43% score on 24 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [16] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore graded the film "A−" on scale of A to F. [17] [18]
In retrospect, Brad Pitt was critical of his performance on the film: "That was the pinnacle of my…loss of direction and compass." [19]
