Rob Reiner’s The Bucket List
feels like a stunningly incomplete motion picture. Its hollow
assembly elicits the impression that once Reiner and
screenwriter Justin Zackham knew they had crafted a creative
premise and secured the reliable Morgan Freeman and Jack
Nicholson for the lead roles, they went on autopilot. This
wasn’t actually the case—Reiner spent many months acquiring
financing for this film as if it were a passion-project,
persuaded an uneasy Freeman to take on his role, and used
Freeman’s involvement to prompt Nicholson to hop onboard—but it
just as easily could’ve been. As it is, The Bucket List
is totally unremarkable and displays no signs of the hard-work
indicated by its long history in pre-production. In fact, the
movie isn’t much better than any other that Reiner has made
during the last ten years, all of which have achieved
throwaway-status in time.
Freeman’s Carter
Chambers and Nicholson’s Edward Cole are two mismatched
hospital-roommates who are dying of cancer. Despite being
totally opposite—Carter a hardworking family-man and Edward a
lonesome business-tycoon—they form an understanding of each
other as they engage in small-talk between treatments. One day,
Edward stumbles upon a so-called “Bucket List” that Carter has
composed at the advice of his freshman college philosophy
professor, in which he lists all of the things he would like to
do before he dies. Edward decides that there’s no reason that
they both shouldn’t put the list into action, and adds a few
lines to it. Because Edward is rich beyond belief, the two can
do virtually whatever they want together. The process of
carrying out the list prompts the men to form a sympathetic bond
with each other and to reflect on their long lives. It also
results in trouble at Home for Carter, whose wife believes
Edward, a near-stranger, has stolen him away from her.
Sure: the
basic-idea behind The Bucket List is congenial and the
stars are perfect for the roles. But what does this matter when
one considers that the film exploits these advantages to concoct
a thoroughly ordinary product? The Bucket List has gives
its inventive characters nothing original to do, leaving its
gifted lead actors to wander around aimlessly. Carter and Edward
carry out ridiculously cliché and sappy excursions together,
making it hard for the viewer to feel any more sympathetic for
the men than they would for the figures in a Hallmark greeting
card. Carter and Edward travel to the Taj Mahal in India. They
host their own African Safari. They go skydiving. They decide to
get tattoos. They race cars against each other. They make plans
to fly to the top of Mount Everest. How original, right? The
movie becomes quite unbelievable in that it expects the rational
viewer to believe that such wise, experienced old men would
choose to enjoy such trivial, convenient pleasures before
less-conventional ones.
Freeman and
Nicholson, as always, have their charms. When they are confined
to the simplicity of minor Buddy-Comedy as their characters ail
in the hospital, the two Hollywood-veterans are actually
convincing enough to make the movie seem worthwhile. (Nicholson
is especially pleasant, and he asks Freeman one of the most
puzzled-over questions of recent film-history: “Were you born
with those freckles?”) Once the actual plot kicks in, however,
not even their seasoned acting-skills can overpower the
stereotypical nature of the material. Come its conclusion,
The Bucket List stands as disposable as an A-list
Holiday-season sap-fest has ever been. Even more dismaying than
the film’s abuse of two great actors is the fact that Reiner has
turned his once-great directing career (let’s not forget that
the guy made This is Spinal Tap and The Princess Bride,
people!) into an overwhelmingly mediocre one. Just like Reiner’s
recent Alex & Emma and Rumor Has It, this bland
film is better left forgotten.
-Danny Baldwin, Bucket Reviews
Review Published on: 1.7.2008
Screened on: 12.31.2007 at the AMC
30 at the Block in Orange, CA.
The Bucket List is rated PG-13 and runs
97 minutes.
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