The Bucket of Life

“We live, we die, and the wheels on the bus go round and round.”

          This is what the ‘followers’ of ‘The Bucket List’ love to share with the world audience after experiencing one of the most touching and powerful visual projections by Rob Reiner on an unusual journey of two characters from life to death.

          As the name suggests, ‘The Bucket List’ introduces a wish list of things to do before they ‘kick the bucket’ (as metaphorically presented in the film).

          Carter Chambers is basically an amateur historian, but his world was confined to the job of a blue-collar mechanic at the McCreath body shop. His favourite TV show is ‘Jeopardy’. Edward Cole is a four time divorced billionaire and hospital owner who enjoys teasing and tormenting his personal care taker Thomas. Though Thomas reveals his name as Matthew at a point, Edward makes a strong defense saying that the name Matthew is too biblical. He like drinking Kopi Luwak, one of the most expensive coffees in the world.

          After discovering the spread of lung cancer, Edward and Carter are admitted or queued in the same room for chemo treatment. Edward’s first impression about Carter is that “he looks half-dead already”.

          The film portrays the harsh realities of life along with some factual realizations which we common people tend to discard calling them intellectual or philosophical. Carter is a man who has travelled across the ever ending paths of the history and mystery of life. This itself is the reason why Edward gets attracted to Carter within such a short span of time.

          As soon as both of them becomes aware of the truth that the term of their remaining life is only one year approximately, Edward insists Carter to get ready for a ‘final splash’ to fulfill all those wishes in the Bucket List in the power of his financial backup.

          Carter joins with Edward for the adventurous journey, denying the objections of his wife Virginia. The remaining part of the movie depicts the touching rhythm and inspiring pace of life.

          Sky diving, laugh till I cry, help an extremely stranger for his good, kiss the most beautiful girl in the world etc. are some of the interesting wishes in the Bucket List which adds beauty to the meaning of the very title of the movie.

          As the film progresses, we can see the joyful Carter and Edward sharing chit-chats, sitting at the top of a great pyramid where they reveals the points at which they utterly failed in their lives. Carter feels less love with his wife. Edward is deeply hurt because of the separation with his only daughter who ignored him after he drove away her abusive husband.

          The lovely friendship of Edward and Carter meets with a twist when Edward gets angry on Carter’s move to re-unite Edward and his daughter. There we witness a sudden collapse in their friendship which is followed by Carter’s return to his home and Edward’s lonely moments where he cries desperately for the first time in his life.

          The wish ‘laugh till I cry’ is striked off by Carter through their last meeting, where carter describes an interesting story behind Kopi Luwak and makes a loud prolonged laugh till he cry.

          The most beautiful part of the movie is the way how Edward crosses the wish to kiss the most beautiful girl in the world. He re-unites with his daughter and there he finds his grand daughter which he never knew that he had. He gives an affectionate kiss on her cheek and fulfills his so called wish.

          The film closes through a couple of heart touching emotional clips, including Edward’s funeral speech after Carter’s death where he remembers who was Carter to him and how special he was; the visual picture of Matthew placing a Chock full o’Nuts coffee can alongside another can with the Bucket List placed at the middle after crossing the wish ‘witness something truly majestic’

          “Even now I cannot understand the measure of a life, but I can tell you this. I know that when he died, his eyes were closed and his heart was open. And I’m pretty sure he was happy with his final resting place, because he was buried on the mountain and that was against the law.”

          This is how Carter’s epilogue ends in the movie. This film is not about life; not about death. But it is all about what matters for us in the lonely path of life between life and death. For me, it is not a film. It is just a reminder to make us think of what we can do to be happy and to make others happy in this dark room of life.

Everyone is strangers at first. Come; let’s make our Bucket Lists before we kick the buckets.