TheBucketList – movie

Got an opportunity to watch this movie yesterday at The PVR Cinemas, Bangalore. Thanks to fellow pals raghu, shiva and mayank, for getting me a ticket too. I personally liked the movie, though it has got only short lived moments, be it a comedy, emotion, fun, smoke, drink, as its running only for 97 minutes.

THE one thing that i liked THE most in the movie is its ONE LINE Message.
Oneline Message: “it’s never too late to live life to its fullest”
Online Story: “2 strangers (cancer patients) meet in a hospital…. create a bucket list… roam around and live life to the fullest”

Here is the brief story.. copied from WIKI. More…

Blue-collar mechanic Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) and billionaire hospital magnate Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson) meet for the first time in the hospital after both have been diagnosed with cancer. They become friends as they undergo their respective treatments.

Carter is a gifted amateur historian and family man who had wanted to become a history professor, but in his youth had been “broke, black, and with a baby on the way” and thus never rose above his job at the McCreath (named after a healthcare consultant and friend of the writer) body shop.

Cole is an eccentric loner, four times divorced, who enjoys nothing more than tormenting his personal valet/servant, Matthew, whom he calls Thomas (Sean Hayes). He quickly befriends Carter, making Matthew serve Carter as well as him and ordering his doctor to familiarise himself with Carter’s health.

Both are diagnosed with a year or less to live. Carter begins writing a “bucket list,” or things to do before “he kicks the bucket.” While not a serious list of intentions, he is goaded into going through with it when Cole discovers the list. Cole pushes Carter (by suggesting he add things like seeing the world, sky diving etc), and promises to finance the trip. Despite the protests of his wife, Virginia (Beverly Todd), Carter agrees.

The pair then begin an around-the-world vacation, embarking on everything from race car driving to sky diving to climbing the Pyramids to hunting lion Safari in Africa to Tajmahal in India. Along the way they discuss faith and family, and learn from each other that Carter has long been feeling less in love with his wife and Cole is deeply hurt by his estrangement with his only daughter, who disowned him after he sent some people after her abusive husband.

As they criss-cross the entire globe, Carter finds that the love he had for his wife is still strong. He asks to return home, and in gratitude for helping him, he tries to reunite Cole with his daughter, but Cole lacks the courage to face her. He angrily storms off and Carter returns home to his wife, children, and grandchildren.

The family reunion is short lived. Carter relapses and is rushed back to the hospital. The cancer has spread to his brain. Cole, who is now in complete remission, visits him there, and they share a few moments together where Carter reveals the origin of the “world’s most expensive coffee” he has been drinking (Kopi Luwak). Carter insists Cole finish the list without him. Carter then goes into surgery, but the procedure is unsuccessful and he dies on the table. Cole delivers a eulogy at his funeral, and finds the strength to face his daughter. Much to his surprise and joy, she not only accepts him back into her life, but she also introduces him to the grand-daughter he never knew he had and he is able to cross “kiss the most beautiful girl in the world” off the list.

Cole goes on to live for several more years. When he finally passes away, he has his ashes, which were placed inside a Chock Full o’ Nuts coffee can, buried alongside Carter’s, also in the same type of can, on the top of Mount Everest, which Carter (who has been narrating the film) mentions that Cole would have liked, as it was against the law. Matthew, Cole’s assistant does this and as he does so he crosses off the last item on the Bucket List (witness something truly majestic) and buries it with them.

It must be noted that there is a certain irony pertaining to the coffee can. In the beginning of the movie, one can see Carter flick the ashes from his cigarette into a Chock Full o’ Nuts can in the body shop, just before he receives the call that informs him he has lung cancer.

Genre: Comedies
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Sean Hayes, Rob Morrow, Beverly Todd
Director: Rob Reiner
Screenwriter: Justin Zackham
Producer: Alan Greisman, Rob Reiner, Craig Zadan, Neil Meron
Composer: Marc Shaiman
Run Time: 97 Minutes.