Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Hypochondriac Joe Banks finds out he has six months to live, quits his dead end job, musters the courage to ask his co-worker out on a date, and is then hired to jump into a volcano by a mysterious visitor.
Joe Versus the Volcano is a genuinely singular film — a fairy-tale fable masquerading as a romantic comedy, with a deliberately stylized, dreamlike visual palette that sets it apart from anything else in its era. John Patrick Shanley's script is whimsical and philosophically earnest in a way that defies genre classification. The plot is loose and episodic, more parable than narrative, which alienates some viewers but is part of its charm. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan (in three roles) are engaging if uneven. Cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt creates lush, theatrical compositions. The ending is broadly satisfying though somewhat abrupt. Its biggest strength is pure distinctiveness — there truly is no other film quite like it.