The Bucket List
Directed by: Bob Reiner
Written by: Justin Zackham
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman
This film has a simple premise - two terminally ill men meet at a hospital and decide to make a bucket list and explore the world together. It has the structure of a buddy film, two people meet and become friends, they fight for some reason and then get back together - as a story, there's nothing new. The things that they do, travelling to different countries, it's visually interesting but I didn't feel or understand how each experience changes them as people or adds to their life experiences. Sure, Cole gets to see another perspective of living, to find and give joy from Carter but for Carter this is a flat arc - I didn't understand how he changed after the trip. He was the same before and after, but his wife says that he went out as a stranger and returned a husband, so did he learn to value his loved ones more from Cole? I don't think so.
The film opens and ends with a heartwarming voice over of Morgan Freeman, asking an interesting question - what's the measure of a good life and although this is an interesting tool, it's Cole who changes in the film and the reason for Cole's change is Carter and it's Carter who's talking about it - it felt a little weird. It feels like, 'Oh he met me and then his life changed'. I liked the aspect that both the characters were strongly diversely opinionated and they weren't judged by the writers for being so, they were presented by understanding their perspective well.
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