Thomas Burton’s World

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The Bucket List

☆☆1/2 stars

From the desk of Thomas Burton

Bucket List: A wish-list of things to do before you die or “kick the bucket”.

My wife and I just got back from watching “The Bucket List”. We both came out of the theater wiping the tears from our eyes. We both liked this movie.

Before I wrote my review I figured I better check out a few reviews written by professional critics. I should have known better. I almost never agree with them.

After reading 4 reviews, I actually started to wonder if we saw the same movie they did. For the most part they trashed the movie, criticizing everything but the interaction between Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson) and Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) even going so far as to say they directed the film themselves by the virtue of their performance.

I have to agree this Rob Reiner film doesn’t really do justice to the incredible locations the main characters purportedly visit during their quest to cross all the items off their “bucket list”. The digital scenery looks a little too perfect, hence actually comes off as fake. I doubt many people but the critics will care.

One thing we both noticed was the age of the crowd in the theatre. Now this isn’t something I usually even think about when I go see a movie. A large majority of the people in the theater were older than we are, or around our age. I’m 52 and my wife won’t let me reveal her age (she’s two years younger than I am). We just found it to be a little unusual.

The dialogue and interaction between Nicholson and Freeman felt real most of the time. This movie touched us both at a personal level. That’s where most of the critics miss the boat I think.

My wife’s sister lost a 4 year battle with cancer at the age of 51 a few months ago. And my father passed away from cancer almost 12 years ago. And neither of them took the time during their last months alive on earth to step back and do even one thing on their own bucket list. In fact, I don’t think either of them had a bucket list.

My wife tried to talk her sister into letting her take her to Hawaii for a week. She actually got mad about it, saying it might affect her treatments. Unfortunately, her treatments didn’t save her anyway. Maybe a trip to Hawaii would have made her last year a little brighter. We’ll never know.

What’s the point?

That’s exactly where this movie touches people, in their heart. And that’s the exact place most critics never look when they point out just how lousy the directing is and how the scenery looks fake and how it was a trite little film that is only any good at all due to the acting of two superstars.

At one point in the film, Edward tells his assistant the three rules an old man should live by:

Never skip a bathroom

Never waste a hard-on

Never trust a fart

My wife lives by the first rule whenever we’re in Disneyland. I’ve told her for years she should live by the second rule. And if nothing else, you should be able to use your imagination why everyone probably ought to keep the third rule in mind.

Pretty silly really. However it illustrates how we can and should laugh at ourselves and probably take ourselves a little less seriously. After all, most of us over the age of 50 can relate to these rules in a personal way. I know I can anyway.

I can tell we laughed and cried during this movie. Was it a really great movie? No. But it did touch us inside and made us reflect on our own mortality. I say it did it’s job admirably.

We were entertained and we came out of the theater feeling like we got our money’s worth. I gave it 2 and 1/2 stars.