Reviews

Film

The Bucket List

Directed by Rob Reiner, starring Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Sean Hayes, Beverly Todd

Nicholson plays Edward Cole, a bilious, coffee-loving billionaire with only six months left to live. Morgan Freeman plays Carter Chambers, a soulful, family-loving car mechanic with only six months left to live. Together, they light out for one last big blow-out before the curtain comes down, effortlessly disproving Dorothy Parker's remark about there being no such thing as a happy ending. Carter has written a "bucket list" of things to do before he dies, and Edward is on hand to first spice it up and then fund the activities from his own copious pocket. Before you know it, the pair are off skydiving over the American desert, barreling around a racetrack in vintage cars, and waxing lyrical in front of the pyramids - the biggest tombs of them all.

For a brief moment one might think Rob Reiner's film might actually be OK. The early, shaven-headed segments are far and away the best, as Nicholson - all glamour gone - vomits into his toilet bowl or is seen ignominiously taped, tubed and twitching as he undergoes a brain operation under general anaesthetic (shades of his indelible ECT session in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest). Then these glimmers of mortality are swept under the carpet in favor of a boisterous globe - hopping jaunt in the manner of Wild Hogs. Sure, Carter's catheter springs a leak at one stage, but no matter. Two scenes later, they're off on an African safari and laughing like morons.

Need we point out how implausible the whole thing is? Would a billionaire executive really wind up in the same hospital ward as a working-class mechanic? (Justin Zackman's script performs all kinds of somersaults to assure us that he would.) Would a pair of terminally ill old men honestly have the energy to climb the Himalayas? Towards the end we are treated to a brief scene in which Edward is shown weeping at the window while two hookers confer quietly on the couch nearby. "He's normally so much fun," murmurs one to the other. How fascinating to learn that prostitutes really do discuss their clients in this manner, bitterly disappointed on those rare occasions when the john is too emotionally zonked to have sex with them in a variety of novel positions. Ah, what a shame - he's normally so much fun.

All of this would be pure agony were it not for the performances. It's not as if either role provides much of a challenge. Freeman again finds himself installed as the sad-eyed emblem of American integrity (for good measure he is coaxed into performing another of those lullaby voice-overs he can probably recite in his sleep these days). Nicholson, for his part, is in trusty As Good As It Gets mode as the cantankerous old goat who learns to think about someone other than himself for a change. Both men could have easily got away with faxing in their performances down a long-distant phone line (possibly from a kiosk beside the pyramids). Yet both tackle the task with, if not relish exactly, then a certain dogged, decent efficiency. The Guardian

Book

A Peacekeeping Mission in Haiti

Written by a high-ranking policeman in Guangzhou who led a Chinese peacekeeping force in Haiti, 2005, the book was recently published in China. The author, Peng Yunfei, relies on his diaries and recollections of his experiences while he was a commander in the Chinese Formed Police Unit (FPU).

The book details how the Chinese FPU leadership displayed professionalism in executing its mandate and cooperated with other units. Peacekeeping operations present a platform for people from different cultures and countries to display their talents. In this regard, the Chinese FPU commanders demonstrated their wisdom and management philosophies, which were well received.

Zhu Haiping

(China Daily 02/27/2008 page20)