The Bucket List
Warner Bros. Pictures, ??mins, PG-13




Directed by
Rob Reiner


Would it be fun to take a trip around the world with Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman and Rob Reiner? Probably. Going first class all the way? Even more probably, which is most likely why this project was made in the first place.

Justin Zackham's script is primarily a stage play. It takes place primarily in one room, and is 60% just two guys talking to each other.

Edward Cole (Nicholson), is a heard headed businessman who runs a chain of hospitals and is hoisted on his own petard when he falls victim to one of his own economic dictums. He's forced to have a roommate, one Carter Chambers (Freeman), an old mechanic. Both have advanced cancers and are undergoing chemotherapy. This is grim stuff. But it does give two of cinemas greatest treasures a forum for practicing their art together for an extended period of time without any real distractions. Zackham and Reiner have given Freeman and Nicholson the freedom to just converse in a way that pretty much makes one almost forget how bad their character's situation is. This is pure theater, and had this been on Broadway, this would have been the whole thing. People would have come to see just that. It would have been enough. But this is a movie, so you have to get a maguffin, and the maguffin is the title object.

The bucket list is a list of things to do before one kicks the bucket,and the last half of the film is a trip around the World.
Sure there are some slight scenes with supporting characters, Beverly Todd, as Carter's wife has a couple of decent scenes, and Sean Hayes, as Edward's assistant Thomas, is an excellent straight man, but this is two aging titans having a good time doing what they do best, and having a fun trip and getting paid for it. This is a joyful film about a really depressing subject, and lesser mortals probably couldn't pull it off. Fortunately, these guys aren't lesser mortals.

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