The Bucket List

Synopsis

Oscar winners together in a comedy drama about cancer, death, friendship, and finding out who you are is the anticipated movie, The Bucket List. Auto mechanic Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) and tycoon hospital owner Edward Cole ( Jack Nicholson) have terminal cancer and must share a hospital room. They become friends and decide to live it up before their untimely diagnosed death of less than a year. These men travel the world and learn new and beautiful things about life.

Review

I am not an older man. I haven't experienced any terminal illness with a family member. I am not a nurse or a doctor. I have nothing in common with the characters in this movie, but I actually felt strong emotions with The Bucket List. There was no major action and a lot of long monologues, but I still liked the movie. I am surprised by this. I know the reviews for this film were not stellar, and I assumed I would feel negative about it too. I didn't. I walked a way saying to my husband that it was a lovely movie while I had a knot in my throat and cried just a little—not too much....ain't no punk....

Anyhoo, the movie is 97 minutes and I didn't feel like I wasted my time with the story of Carter (Freeman) and Edward (Nicholson), two aged men who are diagnosed with less than a year to live due to their spreading cancer, a condition that crosses their paths when they share a room at the hospital—which happens to be owned by Edward. Let me just say Edward is ballin'. He's a high-powered, quadruple divorcee, billionaire hospital owner with no family or love. He's also an a**hole. Excuse me. For the sophisticates, we'll just say curmudgeon. Carter is the complete opposite. He worked 46 years as an auto mechanic, has only been with one woman his entire life, his wife Virginia (Beverly Todd, Lean on Me). That's amazing. Anyhoo, He has children and grandchildren who love him dearly.

A public image disaster in the making, Edward's hospital has a money-saving rule—two beds must be in every room—no exceptions. He makes these rules before he knows of his illness and of course his old behind now wants to make an exception. His clever personal assistant, Thomas (Sean Hayes, Will & Grace) stresses to him that he would pretty much look like a hypocrite if he had his own room, so Edwards is roomed with Carter. Soon a common bond forms between Edward and Carter, and the movie moved forward with their list of things they must do before they 'kick the bucket.' When you have a baller like Edward, that list can be pretty much anything. Through the adventures, the two very different men find themselves in a blossoming friendship.

People, if you are not up for a tear-jerker, or to be reminded of cancer and often it's cruel henchmen that travel throughout one's body to still their life, then you don't want to see this. If you are sensitive, or don't want to ruin your make up, or fellas, you don't want to choke up in front of our lady, then don't watch the movie. But, if you love Nicholson and Freeman, and just want to see these two legends join up on the big screen together, then definitely watch this movie.

I believe the film would have been completely lackluster with C-list actors. Nicholson and Freeman brought it to life. There are some scenes that drag, but there is something endearing and touching about this movie. It was lovely to see Carter's wife by his side and worried about him. You could see the stress in her face. It was real. It was cute and quite rewarding to see Edward and Carter fulfill some of the dreams/wants/desires that were on the list. One problem I had was the scenery looked sooo fake when they were off in other parts of the world. I wasn't quite sure if the director wanted it to look fake or it was the best that he could do. Hmmmm...

Nicholson and Freeman played off of each other well. What do you expect from some old pros? It's a touching move...but man did these two guys look OLD, DUSTY, RUSTY and ROUGH in some of the scenes. Bravo to makeup crew. Or maybe they weren't wearing makeup...I mean Morgan was an adult in this scene.

My Rating ~ 3 Reels

Audience Rating (What's Yours?)