paul-nemecek

In the recent thriller The Edge, Anthony Hopkins played a wealthy businessman who is transformed by a harrowing encounter with death. In Meet Joe Black, Anthony Hopkins plays Bill, a similar character confronting similar themes, but with a very different twist. Here he meets Death as played by Brad Pitt. Death informs Bill that he wants to see what life is like and he wants Bill to teach him. So long as Death is interested and learning, Bill gets more time. When Bill has to introduce Death to his family at dinner, he fumbles around for a name, eventually coming up with Joe Black.

This is hardly the first film to depict bargains with Death. In Ingmar Bergman's Seventh Seal the allegorical figure of death (complete with shroud) is challenged to a game of chess. His intended victim hopes to forestall the inevitable. Bergman's Death character is reprised in Woody Allen's Love and Death, The Last Action Hero, and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. In Meet Joe Black we are spared the shroud since Death decided to borrow a body from one of his victims. (If you gotta' have one, might as well borrow one that looks like Brad Pitt, I guess.)

The real twist in this film comes in what could be taken as the sub-plot. Death falls in love with Bill's daughter Susan. Susan is involved with Drew, her father's right-hand man in the business world. Drew meanwhile is conniving at some underhanded business deals of his own. The plot takes more than a few twists and turns along the way, but in the end it is neither the plot nor the grand theme (if there is one) that makes the film engaging. Sometimes its the ride itself that makes the journey worthwhile.

Frankly, there are more than a few problems of plausibility here (even after we grant willing suspension of disbelief to the central premise). As one small example, Joe Black is fluent in Jamaican patois, but doesn't know how to tie a tie. The cinematography is good, but not outstanding, and the performances are no more that what we would expect under the circumstances.

Still in all, there were more than a few moments along the way where the audience laughed pretty hard. At one point the audience applauded (in the middle of the movie no less), and I'm sure there were more than a few smiles on more than a few occasions. By the end of the film, director Martin Brest (Scent of a Woman) has given us quite a few simple pleasures along the way. If there is a grand theme to the film, perhaps that is it . . . . it's the simple pleasures that make life good, and in the end, caring is everything.

One True Thing is a film about a husband and wife dying of cancer. She is dying of inoperable cancer, while he is living with a kind of cancer of the soul. George and Kate Gulden (William Hurt and Meryl Streep, respectively) have two grown children--Brian (played by Tom Everett Scott of That Thing You Do) is a struggling university student and Ellen (played by Renee Zellwegger of Jerry McGuire fame) is a driven journalist on her way up the career ladder.

George Gulden is a literary critic and university professor. His wife, Kate, derives her meaning from holding the family together and from her investments in personal relationships. As the story begins, the whole family is together to celebrate George's birthday with a surprise literary birthday party in which each person is to come dressed as their favorite literary figure. It is during this time that the family discovers Kate's cancer, and Ellen is asked to move back home to care for her mother.

As our central character, Ellen is struggling to win the acceptance of her somewhat distant father, and to come to terms with her controlling mother. Each of these characters is struggling with their own private sense of failure. Through small flashback sequences, Franklin connects the childhood of years gone by with the struggles that Ellen faces even today.

On the surface, the film appears to be a fairly run-of-the mill two-hanky "weepie". Director Carl Franklin manages to take these cliches and weave them into something a bit more complex, something that is ultimately a bit more satisfying. We discover, for example, that Ellen is being interrogated by the police because her mother died from an overdose of morphine. This subplot adds some distinctive twists to the film (and makes it a timely film considering SAC's upcoming Focus Series). Beneath it all, this film is about failure, sorrow, and loss for each of its main characters. But it is also about forgiveness, compassion, and grace.

To fans of Meryl Streep and William Hurt it should come as no surprise that there is some excellent acting in this film. Hurt's character is not unlike past characters Hurt has played in The Big Chill and The Accidental Tourist. There is a complexity to his performance here, however, that goes beyond what he has done before. George Gulden is a man of ambiguous feelings and mixed motives. Hurt depicts this rather well, sometimes through facial expression alone. Meryl Streep is outstanding as always, and Renee Zellwegger's role provides new challenges that she handles quite well.

One True Thing doesn't have a lot of gunfire, heroics, or sinking ships. What is does offer is a poignant story that feels real, that rings true. All in all, an engaging story very capably told.

Music of the Heart is pretty predictable. If you've seen Goodbye Mr. Chips, To Sir With Love, Educating Rita, Dead Poet's Society, Dangerous Minds, and/or Mr. Holland's Opus you pretty much know what to expect. What is a little unexpected is that this inspirational and moving film is directed by screammeister Wes Craven (Scream, Nightmare on Elm Street, etc., etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseum).

Even though the story has been told before this is based on the true story of a woman struggling to teach violin in East Harlem. Meryl Streep plays Roberta, a mother with two children, who has been deserted by her husband. A friend encourages her to apply for this teaching job and the rest of the story is fairly predictable.

In spite of its predictability, the film has some very touching moments and is truly inspirational. Meryl Streep at her worst is better than most actors at their best, and Streep is excellent in this role. Add a great supporting cast that includes Angela Bassett, Gloria Estefan, Cloris Leachman and Aidan Quinn, and you have a well-told story with a tried and true theme. Technically, Run, Lola, Run is the more innovative film, but there is a message in Music of the Heart that rings true and inspires. I thought of Bob Briner as I watched this film. Bob's message of roaring lambs is consistent with the theme of Music of the Heart. We should spend less time cursing the darkness, and more time lighting candles. We waste too much time lamenting the emptiness and void of a postmodern world. The message of Music of the Heart is that instead of lamenting the silence, we should burst forth in song.