"You're not Death. You're just a kid in a suit" Meet Joe Black

I have no idea why people hate this movie, it is a favorite of mine and I'm a "tough guy".  This movie is a stunning study of humanity and death, death that is with a hunger for understanding life.

Anthony Hopkins delivers a top of his game performance as Bill Parrish a self made multi-millionaire who still has fine principles (a rarity these days).  He is forced to come to terms with his mortality and the choices he has made in life.  He is in the end, the kind of a man we might all wish to be, wealthy yet loving, and deeply commited to family and his business, not quite ready to leave.

Brad Pitt delivers a fine performance as Joe Black (death and taxes) the angel of death who sensing but not knowing takes the life of an anonymous young man in order to study the life of someone he's come to "take home" as it were.  Death finds himself fully engaged in a world far richer and complicated than he ever imagined, admiring Bill Parrish and falling head over heels for his gorgeous daughter Susan (played by relatively unknown English beauty Clair Forlani).

Clair Forlani delivers a stunning performance, and has a unique way of communicating profound emotions without saying a word, or by simply moving her eyes.

Watch for the word "yes", the most interesting use of this word throughout the film, as a question, a statement, an observation and a conclusion.

The plot is a bit awkward at times, deliberately so in I think, conveying an uncomfortable yet intriguing subject, our own mortality.  Death it seems has a conscience and a concern for the quality of our lives.  He seems challenged by his own slowly awakening and maturing emotions, with a fine crystal clear understanding for morality and what he nearly comprimises in his pursuit of Susan.  Death (Joe) starts out childlike, with a love for peanutbutter, milk and cookies developing into a mature man, along the way learning the complexities he could only guess at.

The pace while seeming slow to many, evolves naturally enough for me, pulling me ever deeper into a place where I desire to have "enough nice pictures" to take with me at my end.

A fine supporting cast including:  Jake Weber as Drew (Susan's ambitious and ultimately criminal finance) Marcia Gay Harden as Bill Parrish's eldest (slightly neurotic) daughter Allison and Jeffrey Tambor as Quince Allison's sightly goofy husband.  Quince represents many of us, desiring to be greater, yet can't quite get there.  He is however a loving person having qualities he only guesses at.

As the story draws to it's conclusion much is revealed about the nature of all of us, and the choices we make.  Death, himself, is left in tears at the beauty of life, finding it difficult at last to leave.

This is a great movie to watch on a rainy Friday or Saturday night with a fire in the fireplace, and the one you love by your side on the couch.  Bring popcorn and Kleenex, both will be needed.  Throw off your pre-conceptions of this film and let it take you where it will.