Today’s quick review: The Bucket List. Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson star as a pair of aging cancer patients who decide to spend their last weeks on a globe-trotting adventure to complete their bucket list, “the list of things to do before you kick the bucket”. Funded by Nicholson’s riches, the two go skydiving, drive racecars, and see the sights of the world. But their trip runs aground when Freeman cannot convince the irascible Nicholson to make up with his estranged daughter, and the two are left to make what they can of the rest of their lives.
The Bucket List is a bittersweet comedy carried by a duo of excellent actors. Freeman plays a warm and honest working-class man who has spent his life working to support his family. Nicholson plays a grumpy but charming millionaire who has spent his life building his business. The two meet in a cancer ward and quickly become friends. Rather than waste away in a hospital, they decide to live out all the dreams they never had the money or time for before. The two actors are masters of their craft, and they play off each other well, quickly settling into a buddy comedy interaction.
The premise of the movie is a simple one, and its execution is linear. Much of the movie is spent on the pair’s world tour, bookended by the emotional and familial aspects of terminal cancer. The actors do manage to work real bits of humanity into these scenes, from Nicholson’s unwillingness to confront his mistakes to Freeman’s principled devotion to his wife. The tone of the film is one of joyous optimism brought down to earth by its more dramatic scenes. Overall, The Bucket List is a well-executed but straightforward movie. It’s worth a watch if you’re in the mood for a life-affirming comedy that mixes in sadder elements as well as bits of catharsis. Skip it if you want a pure comedy with no strings attached or you are looking for something with a little more meat on its bones. 7.4 out of 10 on IMDB.