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Reviews
The Bucket List (2007)
Fun, touching, funny, very profound.
The day your born and The day you die. That is what is on most tomb stones. That little box in time, that is you. When you consider death, (a thing outside our existence) and life and you come to the realization that you live in time, you make better use of your time, your "life". This movie takes you on a journey, perhaps some version of which, we too will be taking, all of us. And at the end the real end "death" what can we hope to come up with? What is this entire journey, your life about? What was the meaning the purpose, if any? At the end Jack Nicholson's character Edward with a little help form a real friend found just that. "Edward the man of stone, the billionaire playboy found meaning and purpose when he "Kissed the most beautiful girl in the world", the grand-daughter he had not met. The bucket list for Edward included, a somewhat superficial item "kiss the most beautiful girl in the world". Carter (Morgan Freedman's character) who became his best friend in part because they shared this journey towards death) asked Edward, how he was going to do that "kiss the most beautiful girl", and Edward answered with a smile "Volume". This came across as self absorbed and superficial and about man's lust for the female beauty. Carter commented "Edward I have take baths deeper than you". Yet at the end making things right with his estranged daughter and kissing his beautiful his grand-daughter (the most beautiful girl in the world) brought peace and meaning and revealed one of the most true and meaningful things in his life. Edward realized that he did have someone(s) who loved him and he loved truly, and deeply, not because of his money or anything else, just loved him for him and he loved them for them, (his daughter, grandchild and Carter). This part of the story is similar to the master piece "The Death of Ivan Illich" by Tolstoy where at the end Ivan sees that a large part of his life was superficial and meaningless and lies (to others and more importantly to himself) and as he is dying his little boy clings to his neck and Ivan realizes that he did experience true love, absolute love,a love so pure that, that brief moment in time saved his life by bringing meaning in the most sincere way possible. The journey is filled with very may little insights and subtitles, but at the end Carter too rediscovers the love of his life his wife that he somewhat took for granted. And two strangers also came to love one another despite their very different lives, their shared a journey (not the fun stuff) towards death revealed humanity's most beautiful and powerful gift, the ability to love the other, not string attached. Perhaps the simplest thing I can say is, that this gem simply point you and me in the direction we should be looking towards as we make and fill the bucket list of our lives. The only real, true and meaningful things in life are so precious that, all the money in the world can not buy it, it true genuine, love and our ability to love is what points to the divine in us. And maybe even hints at the ultimate question, where did we come form and where are we going to after we have "shuffled off this mortal coil".
Hello I Must Be Going (2012)
The deeper meaning of the story told in this wonderful movie (poss spoiler alert)
Is this movie a love story, comedy, tragedy? Is there an answer the the questions raised by this movie? Yes and No or is there a maybe answer to these questions raised by this interesting little story. What I see in this movie "story" is people sleep walking through life as we all tend to do most of the time. Then there is Amy who is really alive, living in the moment. Amy is not thinking about the trip around the world or retirement or making money, in the pain that she feels at the loss of love she is more alive than all the other characters. Loosing a love is a "near death" experience, because when it is your time to go "die" you must separate (loose) all your loved ones who must stay behind and carry on in life. So here you have Amy in her misery morning the death of a part of her (and although maybe not consciously) she is more alive than all the other people in the story. The possible exception is Jeremy (the young man "actor") he being an artist. Artist are always more alive, less sleep walking, than the rest of us. Jeremy the artist sees Amy through different eyes, and he see's Amy's passion (all be it in the grief of her loss) and all of a sudden two people who are not sleep waking meet. Both, Amy and Jeremy, finding each other alive and vibrant (all be it for different reasons) they see an opportunity to be with another real, attractive (not sleep walking) person and find and share in the most valuable richness in this world love. As the story progresses from Amy's perspective "mostly" you see that she is just as alive in the warmth of the sunshine of love as she was in the misery of the cold darkness of her morning for the loss of love. The story ends by both of them begrudgingly going back the what is acceptable (by society's standards) which is finding or trying to find some one who is right??? for you, correct age, class, race, religion culture etc. etc.. But somehow knowing and being grateful for their brief summer of love where the shared a waking moment in time. A man and a woman sharing a moment in time in the splendor of love. Oh and yes by the way told as some what of a comedy, because some times big truths can more easily be told in comedy.