Death wants a break from the loneliness of his work and so
goes to Bill Parrish (Anthony Hopkins) to be guided in the ways of the living.
He experiences more than he intended when he fell in love with Bill’s daughter
Susan (Claire Forlani) and he is reluctant to leave.
The mark of a good life must surely be having no regrets and
when Bill is confronted with Death, he doesn’t try to change things in his
life, he mostly continues on as before but is more open with his love for the
people closest to him. And he doesn’t make a risky business decision because he
wants the company to stay as he built it, so the people can remember him
through it. I can’t imagine many of us will die with no regrets, I’m sure the
majority of us will have something we wish we could’ve done differently. But
knowing that, as most people must, doesn’t usually make people change their
ways. We will watch a film such as this and think how wonderful it must be to
live exactly as you wished to and maybe even entertain a notion or two about
changing something in our lives that hasn’t been right. But that won’t last, it
might only last so long as a blog post, let’s say. Then we’ll go back to doing
things we don’t want to do even though we know we could live so much better.
If we accept that Death (as a sentient entity) does exist,
it never really occurred to me how lonely it must be. Its sole purpose is to
take people out of their lives and off into some form of afterlife and rarely
is it welcomed. It makes sense that Joe (Brad Pitt) would be reluctant to leave
because he’s in love and is loved in return, and he’s had many other interesting
human experiences along the way. People can sometimes wish for the sense of
isolation that Death has but to have never experienced any form of closeness to
any other person seems quite heartbreaking. I’m not really sure what I’m
getting at here, to be honest. Enjoy your time with people while you have it,
and try not to wish it away.
The film itself is very well done, which is what you’d
expect since it does last for over 3 hours. Anthony Hopkins was delightful, as
usual. His portrayal of a man who has been so strong for all his life but is
now faced with such pain and uncertainty is great. Brad Pitt is able to exhibit
two very different personalities; one is intense and commanding, while the
other is laidback and sweet. The story is very interesting and I’d recommend
this film to anyone.
8/10
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