Nothing wrong with a little gentle manipulation

From the previews, I thought The Bucket List would be an OK movie at best - I mean how can ya go completely wrong what with Nicholson and Freeman as your stars, I figured. I also thought it would be slightly on the predictable side, what with the premise, and with Rob Reiner directing I was figuring it would be a bit of a sap-fest, with the manipulation factor running roughshod over the audience (making us care about these people and then making us watch them die). I hate that, but I decided to give the film a chance anyway.

The actual film, I'm pleased to report, is much better than I had expected. Reiner pulled off the perfect tone throughout, giving us tons of excellent character-driven humor which never feels forced or desperate, and he had the good sense and instinct to allow these two brilliant actors to shine in their respective roles in a natural, humanistic way. Most importantly, he realized the material did come with a bit of the dreaded manipulation - we do wind up caring about these two guys and they do die - but it's written and portrayed in a gentle way, with wonderful good humor, up til the very end. In fact, the very last line of the movie, delivered by Freeman in a voice-over (let's face it, nobody does this more eloquently), is about Nicholson's character's ashes, and it's a very witty line.