The Bucket List: What Would Be On Yours?

If you could know in advance, would you want to know the exact day of your death? You may say yes as it would inspire you to live for the moment, or you may say no, because you would simply rather not think about it. In the case of Edward and Carter, choice is a luxury they do not have.

Directed by Rob Reiner and released in 2007, The Bucket List will stay with you long after the end credits have rolled. Oscar-winning Hollywood icons Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman portray two terminally ill lung cancer patients, Edward and Carter respectively, who find themselves forming an unlikely friendship in their shared hospital room. The pair could not be more different, yet as both are forced to accept the devastating news that they have less than a year to live, a strong camaraderie develops between them. Billionaire Edward encourages Carter to embark with him upon the adventure of a lifetime in order to complete their mutual ‘bucket list’, a list of things they want to do before they ‘kick the bucket’. In a whirlwind of spontaneity, Edward and Carter skydive, muse about love and life whilst watching the sunset over the Pyramids, race their dream cars, dine like royalty at a top class French restaurant, fly over the North Pole, witness the beauty of the Taj Mahal, motorcycle across the Great Wall of China and spot lions on safari in Africa. Through sharing their suffering, Edward and Carter grow to understand the common affinities that exist between all humans.

Dazzling performances are to be expected from the highly acclaimed Nicholson and Freeman, and they do not disappoint, complementing one another with a refreshing chemistry whilst managing to maintain their own unique styles. Nicholson’s trademark devious grin is out in force, as is Freeman’s screen-transcending aura of worldly wisdom. Nicholson has now well and truly established himself as the archetypal loveable rogue, and as for Morgan Freeman, who else could Tom Shadyac have chosen to play God in Bruce Almighty? The very reason I picked up The Bucket List in the first place was because I saw their names on the cover.

Edward and Carter's admirable struggle to both accept and defy the inevitability of their mortality is naturally moving to watch, yet the intended comic, light-hearted moments in the film fail to convince as cancer, quite simply, isn’t funny. Personally however, I found the tentative brushstrokes of humour all the more poignant given the canvas of unimaginable personal tragedy upon which they are painted. The DVD case may guarantee ‘lashings of comedy’ but, unsurprisingly given the subject matter, that proves an empty promise. That said, whilst you may not laugh until you cry, you will undoubtedly be left inspired by the courage of two men determined to make the best of the cards life has dealt them.

I suppose the question that the film leaves you with is what would be on your bucket list? For in the words of The Shawshank Redemption's Andy Dufresne, you can 'get busy living, or get busy dying'.


Trailer for The Bucket List, released in 2007.