Maintenant ou jamais

The quiet mechanic Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) is a man with a great general culture; has been married for forty-five years with his beloved wife Virginia (Beverly Todd) and has two sons – one lawyer the other engineer – and a violinist daughter. The caustic and bitter billionaire Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson) owns many hospitals, has many divorces and one missing daughter. Following the policy of Edward, his hospital makes no exception giving a private room to him and he shares the same room as Carter. Along the days, they become close to each other and when Edward finds in the garbage the bucket list that Carter had prepared, listing all he wanted to do before dying, he includes his own items and invites Carter to a journey of friendship, discoveries and redemption.

"The Bucket List" has a wonderful screenplay, two fantastic actors and a predictable story about the journey of two terminal patients with cancer that find friendship, discoveries and redemption. The contrast between the two lead characters offers very beautiful moments with witty and spirituous dialogs alternating with funny and dramatic scenes. This is one of those movies that bring happiness to the viewer in spite of the unpleasant theme – illness and death. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Antes de Partir" ("Before Leaving")

Mechanic Carter Chambers and hospital magnate Edward Cole meet each other in a hospital.They both have a terminal lung cancer.But instead of giving up, just waiting to die on a hospital bed, they decide to go on a journey.They make a list of things to do and places to go before kicking the bucket.The Bucket List (2007) is a comedy drama film directed by Rob Reiner.One of the reasons this movie rises from mediocrity to something better is the main actors, Morgan Freeman (Carter) and Jack Nicholson (Edward).They're both born in 1937 and they really know their game.Sean Hayes plays Edward's valet/servant Thomas.Beverly Thomas is Carter's wife Virginia.Alfonso Freeman (Morgan's real son) plays Roger.Rob Morrow is the doc, Dr.Hollins.This can be quite funny from time to time.I especially enjoyed how Carter kept giving answers to questions on Jeopardy while having a serious conversation.And the whole Kopi Luwak business is quite amusing.Also the drama works in this movie.The Bucket List doesn't make dying such a serious matter.Or at least you can make the best of it.

The big thing about this is that this is the one film where you should not look at the critics' reviews before watching it. Rotten Tomatoes averaged up 40% of critics liking it, and Metacritic's averaged score is currently 42 out of 100. Both, all in all, are mixed or average scores. This is definitely not your average comedy/drama in any way, shape, or form. If anything, it deserves an Oscar. Maybe not Jack Nicholson--it's easy to admit that he does not give his best performance; plus he had an easy role to deal with--but Morgan Freeman definitely should have won the Oscar for Best Actor. He was smart, funny, witty, clever, and lovable. If the Academy didn't want that, what a pity.

Usually I'm not into these kinds of movies, but with the casting of Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman I had to see it. I'm really glad that I decided to give this a try.

The story is quite predictable, but I still enjoyed it. Never mind how impossible the storyline is because it is a great movie about friendship - how two men become great friends in a short time and help each other out throughout the time they are together. It moves along at a smooth pace and I never got bored, so the writer gets credit for that. The acting was top notch as Nicholson and Freeman draw forth the right emotion in the audience at the right time. The emotional parts are done just right, but the funny scenes are the best. I laughed throughout the movie but not as much as I would in a true comedy movie, but the comic scenes in this one really work and Nicholson is the "main man" in them. It does have a message at the end about how you should live your life to the fullest, how your family is important, and how you should be happy in life and the movie delivers that message perfectly.

Other than the predictable storyline and the sometimes cheesy dialog, the movie is great. I would recommend it to anyone that is looking for a feel-good movie.

8/10

I must say that watching this film was certainly a joy I was told that this was a must-see and i wasn't disappointed.

Morgan Freeman and jack Nicholson put on a great performance and made the film great.

Besides this, i think that the storyline is certainly well-developed and had a strong hold on me.

The only downer i cold point out would be the depressing beginning but that's about it! The rest was lovely.

I can guarantee that many elders will find this a warm-hearted flick to see.