The Bucket List

I watched The Bucket List last night. The Day After Tomorrow was showing free on air. Having watched TDAT at least twice and youthful Jake was no longer as eye candy as before, I decided to take on the offer to do TBL instead.

To say that it was a great movie would not do it justice. It has inspired me to make up my own bucket list as I move along in life. I only wish I had someone rich enough to help me fulfill most of them.

It is amazing, to say the least, watching two very brilliant actors - Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman - duelling in a simple movie that tugged at heartstrings. It would have been a low-budget flick but I bet Jack and Morgan took the roles with the caveat that they get to travel to and visit Italy and some swanky restaurant on top on a hill, watching sunset over dinner, South Africa (Johannesburg) and a safari (hey, they even watched the wildebeest crossing - and I only get to see that on Discovery!) and Egypt and the Egyptian pyramids, India and the Taj Mahal, Nepal and almost Mount Everest, and Hong Kong.

Both raced in Shelby Mustangs in the US, did sky diving, Jack got a tattoo, Morgan nearly got laid (but his loyalty to his wife kept him from taking up the offer), both jetsetted in Jack's private Learjet... Perks galore!

Read here to find out what the movie is really about.

While critics generally panned the movie, I liked it. I am typically not your everybody movie goer. I judge by a different set of standards. First on my list - should the movie even be made? Readers who've seen my other movie reviews know my stand that a movie should not be made for the sake of being made. But I digress.

Emotional dramas are typically panned regardless of how good they are. Remember Titanic? The critics hated it big time: waif-like Leonardo DiCaprio getting to hug busomy Kate Winslet on a palace created to be sunk probably fuelled their jealousy. But what's there to really hate the TBL, even if it had surpassed reality for a little? It merely asked viewers two simple questions:

1. Are you happy?
2. Have you made people happy?

These were brought to the forefront when at the top of some ruins, Carter (Freeman) mentioned that the ancient Egyptians believed that when they died, they would go to the gates of heaven where their final fates depended on their answers to the two questions above. Carter asked Edwards (Nicholson) for his reply. It was there and then that Edwards let on about his estranged relationship with his only daughter.

It took Carter some prodding and perhaps also his death to get Ed and his daughter to reconcile. But Edward did do it.

Though an emo-drama, a viewer does not get the gloom and doom feeling of watching a show where the two male leads are inevitably going to die. The Bucket List is really a list of things they want to do before they kick the bucket. Edwards was introduced to this philosophical list when Carter thrashed his half completed list after he received his death sentence from his oncologist. Apparently, this list was mooted by Carter's philo professor when he was an undergraduate in some college; he had to drop out after an unplanned pregnancy and low funds disrupted his plans to become a history professor. Edward added to the list and soon, it came a to-do list where both men embarked on with every intention of completing.

The unlikely friendship between Carter and Edward was amazing. The stoic and measured Carter is the complete complete opposite of the emotional and explosive Edward. The counterbalances in the movie are well-calibrated and I tell you, Jack could act with just eyes - he lay on the hospital bed when the doctor came in with a grim prognosis. Viewers could only see Jack's eyes through the lenses of a periscope mounted on his glasses to allow him to read newspapers and watch TV when fully reclined. Man, those expressive eyes said it all. "You're blocking me," he told off the doctor after he delivered the diagnosis and prognosis, showing his strength of character.

It is always encouraging when you see two people nearing the ends of their lives living to the fullest. I guess time is wasted on the living. Perhaps when people know they are going to die that they start treasuring time, in case there is no tomorrow. But wouldn't that be too late?

"A survey asked people if they wanted to know exactly when they would die. 96% said no. I guess I am one of those 4% who wanted. I think it would be good. But when it happened, I am not so sure anymore." Carter narrated this as he got his death sentence. But hey, life began for him after this!

People should have their bucket lists. It is not a list to showcase what they have achieved in life but to give meaning to life. The list may grow as the items get struck off. But taking action rather than to wait for an impending doom to act is perhaps one of the best way to live.