Film

As odd couples go, billionaire Edward Cole (Nicholson) and auto mechanic Carter Chambers (Freeman) are pretty darn odd. As characters, they’re also completely unbelievable, incoherently written and unentertaining. They meet as roommates in the cancer ward of one of Cole’s hospitals. (The script asserts that the billionaire would put up with sharing a room because he’s enforced doubles as a company policy and would experience “a PR disaster” if he used his money to get a private room—to which we reply, “Bullshit.”) Edward’s a curmudgeon who has shut down his feelings to make his fortune, while Carter is an earthy but wise fellow whose dreams of being a history professor were put off permanently by fatherhood.

These unlikely pals decide to go on a road trip to do all the things they’ve always wanted to do before they die. Their activities list turns out to be an excuse to fly Reiner, Freeman, Nicholson and the film crew to exotic locales where the pair can speechify about the meaning of it all. (Which character had “see the Taj Mahal” on his list? Or was it the film’s producer?) The film shifts wildly between zany comedy (old men driving race cars!) and sappy bits of life wisdom (money isn’t worth as much as the love of your family) that would make Mitch Albom blush. By the halfway mark, we were rooting for the cancer to hurry up and kill them already.