Meet Joe Black (1998)

***Major spoilers ahead in this review, as my main complaint is with the ending***

IMDb plot summary: A media mogul acts as a guide to Death, who takes the form of a young man to learn about life on Earth and in the process, fall in love with his guide's daughter.
Directed by Martin Brest. Stars Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, and Claire Forlani.

I read the play this story was based on a few years ago and fell completely in love with it, so decided to check out this movie. Overall, it was a disappointment. The story involved did not nearly justify the three hours I spent watching. My main complaints centered around the main female character and the plotlines involving her. She had absolutely no personality (at the end, I realized I wasn't entirely sure what her name was. I named her Julie). As the love plotline drew to a close, I was entirely dissatisfied with the ending they chose to go with - I can't remember how the original play ended, but I liked it, so it must have been better than this bizarre one, where a dead character is resurrected for her and somehow she knows that the original guy she fell in love with was actually Death. Or, well, maybe she knows this. At one point he seemed to be telepathically communicating it.

Either way, the character development and growth didn't really happen in the first 2 1/2 hours, and then it closed off in a completely nonsensical way, that left me going, "Wait - what? How does that work? WHY DOES THAT WORK? No! You can't do that! Movie, that is dumb!" However, Brad Pitt is ever so charming in this slightly offbeat role, and I found myself caring about his romantic plotline solely because he had won me over, even though I was unimpressed with his choice of woman or resolution. 2.5 stars.

Best Part: The scenes between Death and the dying woman are really interesting to watch.
Worst Part: The end. "Wait, does she know now? Wait, is that guy alive now? Wait, is nobody going to be suspicious that her father walked off into the woods with this stranger and then is found dead and he doesn't report it because he knows nothing about it? Wait, is he really going to have to be part of the family now that he knows ABSOLUTELY NOTHING of what's been going on the past day? Isn't that going to pose a problem for the business end of things? THIS IS A HORRIBLE ENDING!"
Flickchart: #813, below Hollywood Homicide and above Glory.