At best and on the surface "Meet Joe Black" is a tolerable film for pure entertainment, upon further inspection, a snail paced three hour patriarchal time suck.

I just had two major issues:

1) That Jamaican accent - the accent itself is actually pretty good, it's the context that's problematic. Sure, there is the faintest inference to Baron Samedi, Vodou Loa (spirit) of the dead (Death himself), in the use of Jamaican patois and the reference of "duppy", "spirit" and "obeah"... but that's not widely general knowledge. It wouldn't have come across so unsettlingly infantilizing if the inference were instead a direct reference, something overt so the audience wouldn't be confused by the sudden switch, instead it appears as though he's speaking to a child (he's literally standing above and talking down to her) almost mocking. Death has many names, they could have had the old lady just say it during her address to Joe (Baron Samedi) -simple fix.

2) Relegating the women to mere objects of service (constantly weeping, making things... preparations, food, notes, "love") added a tang of bitterness to this otherwise mostly pointless drama.


As someone else said, at least now I can tick it off my list.