Bucket List

Do I usually use this space for movie reviews? Not to my recollection! But I have just seen the Nicholson/Freeman buddy movie, "The Bucket List," and I can't resist a note or two...

First, LOTS of good dialogue! I mean, I loved Jack as the "hedonist who discovers his heart" and Morgan as the "auto mechanic whose grease disguises an intellectual." (Freeman deserves special kudos because he was able to sound smart without coming across as pedantic-- a trick I have not yet learned!) Anyway, they were engaging...

Second, maybe my favorite scene was atop a pyramid in Egypt, where Morgan/Carter asks Jack/Ed the two questions the Egyptian dead were asked in order to enter "Egyptian heaven:" 1) In your life, did you experience joy? and 2) In your life, were you a (means to the) joy to others? (Something like that!) Ah... so Egyptian Life was about Joy, felt and elicited? Very different from the "happiness" we Americans take pride in pursuing, huh?

Third, the song at the end, that reprises a line Carter speaks of Ed at the beginning. It is sung by John Mayer-- who probably was the only singer who could get away with singing this song over and over... Anyway, the three lines are: "Say what you want to say!/ Even as your eyes are closin',/ may your heart be open..." I liked that...

This is hardly a head-trippin' movie with a message. But it was a meaningful diversion... And so relatively quiet that we could hear the sounds from the movie next door reverbertating through our theater!

So Bucket List is a movie that touches one's heart without hurting one's ears!

Blessings!