I’m a sucker for Morgan Freeman movies. Ever since I saw The Shawshank Redemption (which immediately became one of my all-time favorites), essentially everything with his name attached ends up in my hands at one point or another. I know I’m just basing this on the characters that he’s played, but I doubt I’m alone in thinking that Freeman just gives off the vibe that he’d be the world’s greatest grandfather. Maybe it’s his voice that makes everything he says sound like it is some sort of great wisdom passed down through the ages, or maybe it’s the fact his cool, calm characters always seem to know more than everyone else in the film. Whatever the reason, even though The Bucket List got decidedly mediocre reviews and I’m not a particularly big Jack Nicholson fan, I knew I’d end up seeing this movie soon enough.
In Bucket List, Freeman and Nicholson play Carter Chambers and Edward Cole, an auto mechanic and a hospital tycoon, who find themselves, first, stuck next to each other in the same hospital room and, next, in the same situation, as they are both diagnosed with cancer and given only months to live. Apart from their obvious income disparities (it is, in fact, in Edward’s own hospital where the two men are receiving treatment), the two men’s lives couldn’t have been any more different. Freeman’s character, Carter, had been forced to drop out of college and take what work he could find when his young wife informed him that she was expecting a rather unexpected child. Forty-some years later, Carter is still working under the hood of a car and may not have an abundance of material wealth, but has a loving and healthy family to show for his work. Edward Cole, on the other hand, has built a billion dollar hospital empire, but has four failed marriages and one estranged relationship with his only daughter laying in its wake. In fact, at one point Cole says, “The only successful marriage I’ve ever had is with work.”
When, one day, Edward notices Carter scribbling what Carter describes as a “bucket list”, something inspired by an assignment a teacher once gave him in college, which asked the students to make a list of things they wanted to do before they died, he decides that, with his money, this list is something the men can accomplish together. While Carter initially balks at the idea of two terminally ill old men setting out on a wild adventure to accomplish the to-do list of a lifetime, Edward eventually manages to convince him, and, after Carter passes this decision along to his furious wife, the pair set out on their way. What follows is a series of comical and awkward scenes in which this odd couple participate in activities clearly directed at men half their age (I kept expecting them to be randomly replaced by Danny Glover and Mel Gibson, just so they could bust out a Lethal Weapon style “We’re gettin‘ too old for this shit!”)
The strengths of Bucket List can, to a certain degree, also fall under the category of weaknesses. There are a lot of the scenes in the film that are pretty funny and entertaining, but, at the same time, are obviously rather predictable and formulaic. The “old guys doing things they shouldn’t” angle isn’t breaking any new ground, and the stories of their personal lives, while somewhat touching, are archetypes that have been drawn from countless stories throughout history. Freeman and Nicholson inhabit their roles well; both actors’ personalities were good pairings with their characters’, although I’m not sure I could ever believe someone like Morgan Freeman would be an auto-mechanic. If I was re-writing the script I would at least have made him a poorly paid high school English teacher or some other profession that was a better match for his intellect.
Overall, The Bucket List is the kind of movie that makes a great pick for a family movie night. No one is going to dislike it enough to protest and there are enough laughs and warm moments to keep your attention throughout. If you don’t have a family, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend dropping $4 at the Blockbuster to rent it, but you could find much worse ways to kill an hour and a half on a slow weeknight at home when Bucket List inevitably ends up in regular rotation on HBO.
Side note: Apparently I’ve been out of the loop. For those that didn’t hear, Freeman was recently in a very serious car crash in which he lost control of the car, veered off the highway, and flipped the vehicle, breaking several bones in the process. After a few days in the hospital earlier this month receiving treatment, he was released and says he is doing very well. Best wishes to him in his recovery.
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I agree, it was pretty predictable and mediocre. It wasn’t a complete waste though, I still found myself laughing at Jack Nicholson quite a bit. He still manages to creep me out with his crazy eyebrows though. By the way, Freeman’s also pretty high on my list of celebrities I wish were in my family too haha.