Movie Review: The Bucket List

What do you want to do before you die? The Bucket List may help you answer that question, and it may not, but the acting and directing in this film, now available on DVD and Blue Ray, will touch you and entertain.

The Bucket List brings two unlikely characters together, Edward Cole played by Jack Nicholson and Carter Chambers acted by Morgan Freeman. Cole is an eccentric, playboy billionaire who owns a hospital conglomerate and Carter is a car mechanic, married to the same woman for 40 years and a devoted family man. They share a hospital room and have one thing in common, they have terminal cancer. Both are given the same prognosis, they have six months to a year to live. These total strangers with such different lives go through chemotherapy together, play cards and get to know each other. Carter starts making a list of things he wants to do in life before kicking the bucket, an exercise he learned during his brief stint in college. Intrigued, Cole adds to the list and declares he has the money for both of them to embark on this adventure. Much to Carter's wife's dismay, they set out to fulfill the list. Their expensive road trip takes them to exotic locations has them doing adventurous things like sky diving. Along the way, predictably, they form a deep friendship.

Director Rob Reiner does a great job of directing these two film giants. The supporting cast is very good, especially Cole's assistant Thomas, played by Sean Hayes who is probably best known for his role as Jack on the TV series Will and Grace; and Carter's wife Virginia, played by Beverly Todd who is also a producer and writer. The screen play is written by Justin Zackham who is also the executive producer of the film. The writing, especially the comedic parts, is superlative. Some of the lines I'm sure will become part of our vernacular, like "Somewhere some lucky guy's having a heart attack." Spoken by Cole as he is slumped over the toilet retching from chemotherapy. Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman are, well Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman; they are great as these two characters, as if the parts were written for them.

I don't want to spoil the story by telling you the ending but suffice to say it's a tear jerker in a very comfortable, heartwarming way. There is quite a bit about this movie that is predictable as I said before, but it is so well acted, directed and written it is well worth seeing. I saw it on DVD but it is going to be available "on demand" by the end of June and I would highly recommend that you catch it. I know I'm going to be watching it again.