For Bill, however, every moment is borrowed. The film’s true protagonist is not Joe, but Bill Parrish. Hopkins gives a masterclass in restrained grief. Watch his face when Joe casually mentions that Bill will “go with him” to the party at the end. There is no horror, only a quiet, oceanic sadness—the knowledge that all the deals, the power, the love he’s built, will soon be nothing but a memory. Bill’s arc is about achieving grace under the sentence of death. His famous, improvised speech to Susan—“Love is passion, obsession…”—is less about romance and more about a dying man’s reminder to the living to feel .
Brest directs with an operatic patience that is either sublime or insufferable, depending on your tolerance. The film is famous for its long takes, its silence (Thomas Newman’s score is sparse and haunting), and its use of everyday objects as totems of mortality: Meet Joe Black -1998
"Love is passion, obsession, someone you can't live without. I say, fall head over heels. Find someone you can love like crazy and who will love you the same way back." For Bill, however, every moment is borrowed