I hate to knock on a movie that tries to earnestly deal with issues of life and death and I have nothing against a more optimistic, feel-good treatment of the material, but the screenplay by Zackham just seems to have been written after jotting down notes from repeated viewings of Nicholson’s and Freeman’s greatest hits and does not make the characters' lives unpredictable enough to feel more real and less soapy.
That certainly does not help director Rob Reiner, who has failed to capture in recent years the real comical spin and zing he brought to his past films like This is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride, and The American President, though this one is certainly better than his last few clunkers like The Story of Us, Alex and Emma and Rumor Has It.
It’s a missed opportunity, as what could have been a deep reflection and meditation on life is just condensed to watching something of an actors’ retrospective, which you might have guessed from the fact that I’ve mentioned their names so many times. I am not without high regards for the two actors, even if I felt I was watching them more than caring about their characters’ ultimate fates, and no one dispenses fortune cookie advice such as “Find the joy in your life” more persuasively and charismatically than Freeman. When he later gets his lifetime achievement Oscar®, he could just a pick a clip of one of his past movie narrations instead of writing his own acceptance speech.
Bottom line: Close but no cigar.
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Article comments
1 - Ruth Smith
Bucket List is one of the best films I have seen. I will buy the DVD when it comes out, so that I can watch it again and again
2 - Dipesh Dhakal
The movie showed more wholly in the last few minutes of its entire duration than in the rest of its time.