It was just like yesterday that I watched first this great film. Watching it again after 18 years always fascinates me. Seldom you find movies with two big name stars in them, and this one had our favorite Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. Both well respected names in the movie industry.
Now Jack here plays Edward Cole, a rich hospital owner who develops cancer and gets in the same room with Morgan Freeman playing Carter, as a aging car mechanic. Both guys have cancer and they stayed in the room long enough to become friends. One day Carter was scribbling something and Cole got wind of the paper. It was Carter's bucket list.
A bucket list is a person's to do list before he or she "kicks the bucket" or die. Since both of our leads have weeks or months to live, they want to do all of those in the list as soon as possible. Good thing Cole is rich so both men got to travel places around the world to perform the ones in their joint bucket list.
Their list is a mix of detailed things to do like, driving a muscle car and sky diving. Some items were a bit complex and vague that they them selves have a hard time thinking of how to accomplish them. These difficult tasks proved to be most meaningful to them when they did them.
The journey started out first as trivial and filled with adventure, then turned emotional when the two really got to know each other very well in the process. The items on the list that we love are the following;
"kiss the most beautiful girl in the world"
"help a total stranger for the good"
"see something majestic"
Their friendship grew so strong that both were at each others throats and comes to the aid of another when in need. Even in death did not stop them from achieving their bucket list, with help from another friend.
To be technical about the film, which you can google yourself, the movie deals in 5 stages when dealing with death. Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. All these were presented by both lead characters and maybe some of the supporting as well.
A film about death that's presented nicely and not in a gloomy manner. The film does paint an alternative picture of how to handle the delicate subject matter. A great under rated film, and a must watch if you ask this writer.
Currently its shown on Netflix, so you don't need to search far and wide just to watch this awesome film. Glad that Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman didn't disappoint, in fact both shined in this movie.
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Sorry but i can't be more detailed as to how they managed to perform the three things I mentioned here. I leave it up to you watch the film and enjoy it as much as I did when I watched it.
