Review of The Bucket List (2007) by Dawdlingpoet — 22 Nov 2021

The movie is quite sombre at the start but its nice to see that as it moves on, Edward and Carter start to become friends as they are put together in hospital next to each other and they slowly start to communicate with each other. It is quite sad in one sense and heart warming and uplifting in another.

Its nice that the two characters open up about their different backgrounds and families and are able to share as much as they do, being so different as the two of them are in one way but having been brought together by their disease.

In the movie they visit many different countries and there are some very nice landscape shots, which looked very good being played on my upscaled DVD recorder. The cinematography is particularly good and also the interaction between Freeman and Nicholson is good, making it a decent quality movie from those respects anyway. I found that I did feel quite attached in some sense to both characters but moreso to Carter, who's quite a quiet, regular family man type guy who's really taken out of his shell by Edward, but also by Edward who hasn't had the perfect life that you may expect him to have had.

It is a movie that might make you think and evaluate things, what you've achieved in life and whats important and it highlights, I think, the importance of friendship and companionship. You could interpret it as saying that perhaps being open minded and making friends with people you may not normally have noticed or thought to, could lead to good things and different ways of thinking. Ladies, you'll need tissues nearby when watching this, thats also true of course (and men too if your the tearful type!).

The ending was, I thought, quite nicely done, it was quite touching and comforting. Onto the more negative side of things and I think that the sentimentality of the movie may put some off, some people might think that this sort of thing has been done too many times before or that its not believable enough, with the two men 'skipping hospital' and galivanting across the world in their condition so to speak but I think, if you think about it, its perhaps more a symbolic movie or idea, like Carter says at the hospital, the list was symbolic, that was until money bags Edward convinced him otherwise. I thought it was quite touching and I enjoyed watching the characters making the most of what they saw and did while they could, seeing new sights and and everything, for me it was a sad but touching and ultimately quite enjoyable movie, with a nice spattering of funny dialogue once in a while. For me I think it worked quite well, though it may not be for everyone, especially if the subject of cancer hits close to home.

Yes, I'd recommend this movie as I quite enjoyed watching it. Both characters are quite interesting with different backgrounds and different points of views and its nice to see them being able to do what they can and to cross things off from their bucket list. You feel sorry for Edward and for Carters family too. The acting is good and the cinematography is also good. Just be aware that you'll need tissues handy for this one (incase it wasn't obvious enough already!).