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DVD Features Freeman and Nicholson in Sentimental End-of-Life Saga
The paths of terminally-ill Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson) and Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) would never have crossed, if they hadn’t ended-up roommates on the cancer ward. For the former is a billionaire businessman while the latter’s a relatively-lowly auto mechanic.
The two soon discover that they share an aversion to the idea of slowly wasting away attached to tubes, monitors and hi-tech machines.Determined to go out on their own terms, they start compiling a “Bucket List” of things they want to do before “Kicking the Bucket.”
Giving full vent to their imaginations, they come up with everything from getting tattoos to visiting the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids and the Taj Majal to race car driving and skydiving to scaling the Himalayan Mountains to finding the perfect woman to joining the proverbial Mile High Club at 30,000 feet in the air aboard Edward’s private jet.
So, ignoring doctors’ orders, they make their break and embark on a macho male-bonding opportunity. And as the intrepid pair gradually check all of the above items off their checklist, they reminisce, philosophize, and most of all, misbehave.
Thus unfolds The Bucket List, a surprisingly lighthearted saga for such a morbid theme. Directed by Rob Reiner, the movie co-stars Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman in roles they’ve practically trademarked. Nicholson steals the show as that bombastic bon vivant we’ve all come to adore, opposite Freeman’s equally-endearing portrayal of a wizened sage wise beyond his years.
The fly in buddy adventure’s ointment arrives when Carter is temporarily tempted to break his marriage vows with a ready-and-willing, seductive vixen (Rowena King). Not to worry. When was the last time you saw Morgan Freeman touch a woman in a movie who wasn’t dead?
A feelgood, end-of-life flick that transcends its sobering subject-matter to miraculously buoy one’s spirits.
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June 2008
