The Last Bus opened in theaters last month to mixed reviews. Most of the positive ones praised its lead star, Timothy Spall, for his masterful performance. The less forgiving reviews hit the movie for what they perceived as an underworked story. Nevertheless, many regular audiences enjoyed the movie, garnering a 67 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. The Last Bus stars some of the most prominent thespians of British cinema, helmed by Timothy Spall. The actor recently gained critical acclaim for his performance in the movie Spencer, which swept awards left and right and earned its star, Kristen Stewart, a nomination for Best Actress at the Academy Awards. He’s also appeared in movies like the Harry Potter franchise, Mr. Turner, and Love Bite. Phyllis Logan also stars in the movie. The actress starred in the British series and movie Downton Abbey. Here is the official synopsis of the movie: “John O’Groats, Scotland: An elderly man, Tom (Timothy Spall), whose wife has just passed away uses only local buses on a nostalgic trip to carry her ashes all the way across the UK to Land’s End, where they originally met, using his free bus pass. Unbeknownst to Tom, his journey begins to capture the imagination of the local people that he comes across and, ultimately, becomes a nationwide story.” If you liked The Last Bus, there are plenty of other films similar to it that you can add to your list of must-watch movies. Here are five movies to watch when you’re done with The Last Bus.
P.S. I Love You
Similarly tackling themes of grief and spousal death, P.S. I Love You stars Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler, Lisa Kudrow, Gina Gershon, James Marsters, Harry Connick Jr., and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. The movie tells the story of a wife who loses her husband to an illness and the series of letters he sends her posthumously to help her move on with a new life without him. While the movie didn’t earn enough love from critics, audiences seem to have loved the story. One of the few positive reviews it got was from the Midwest Film Journal, which wrote of the movie: “Butler is rarely as adorable as he is here, as the specter of a dead man guiding his wife to new love.” The Guardian also showed the movie some love in an article aptly titled “Hear me out: why PS I Love You isn’t a bad movie.” They wrote: “I’m not here to defend the accent. You can have that. I am not going to say that in PS I Love You, Gerard Butler – whose real accent will remain a secret until the day he dies – does a good impression of an Irishman. Although it’s a lot better than reviewers gave it credit for, that is not a hill on which I will get wounded, let alone die. But I have to stand up for one of the most unjustly smeared films of the last 20 years, nay of all time.”
The Fault In Our Stars
The Fault In Our Stars is a 2014 movie based on the novel of the same name by John Green. The movie stars Shailene Woodley, most famous for the Divergent series, and Ansel Elgort, who also found stardom in the movie Baby Driver. The movie tells the story of two cancer patients who fall in love with each other. A highly acclaimed movie, The Fault In Our Stars received rave reviews from critics. One particularly generous review was from the Toronto Sun, which wrote about the movie: “The Fault In Our Stars could indeed become this generation’s Love Story — mildly implausible, but genuinely moving.”
We Bought A Zoo
We Bought A Zoo is a family comedy-drama movie that premiered in 2011. It is based on the memoir of the same name by Benjamin Mee, who reopened the Dartmoor Zoological Park in 2007 and wrote a book about his experiences. The movie stars Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Thomas Haden Church, Patrick Fugit, Elle Fanning, and John Michael Higgins. The movie’s plot is as follows: “Following his wife’s untimely death, Los Angeles journalist Benjamin Mee (Matt Damon) decides to make a fresh start by quitting his job and moving his children (Colin Ford, Maggie Elizabeth Jones) to an 18-acre property containing the Rosemoor Wildlife Park. Though closed for years, Rosemoor is still home to many animals, cared for by Kelly Foster (Scarlett Johansson) and her small staff. Mee opens his heart and his checkbook as he, Kelly and the others work to renovate and reopen the zoo.” A review of the movie for the Spectator wrote: “Everything is, indeed, tied up exactly the way you know it will be tied up, because it is that sort of film, but it still provides a perfectly agreeable way to spend the two hours you weren’t going to do anything with anyway.”
The Bucket List
One of Jack Nicholson’s final films, 2007’s The Bucket List tells the story of two friends, both terminally ill, who go on a road trip to fulfill their life’s wish list. Aside from Jack Nicholson, the movie also stars Morgan Freeman, Sean Hayes, Beverly Todd, Rob Morrow, Alfonso Freeman, Rowena King, and Serena Reeder. In an interview with Collider, Jack Nicholson was asked on whether he himself has made a bucket list, to which he replied: “That’s the thing: if you get to. I just did an interview and I told the man I was going to lie more so I didn’t repeat myself but I’m going to anyway. The third element in this was to see the pyramids, which was kind of in my silent list. Pavarotti was going to do “Aida” at the pyramids, and Lorne Michaels was going to produce it. And I signed up for that a year and a half early and of course he didn’t, God rest his soul. So winding up on a rooftop in the middle of Los Angeles to shoot that scene was a mild disappointment to me. I still want to see the pyramids.”
The Notebook
Last on the list is The Notebook, a movie that was directed by Nick Cassavetes. The film stars Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, fresh out of her villain role on Mean Girls. Based on the novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook depicts the love story of a young couple in the ’40s, the story of which is read from a notebook by an elderly man. A review for the Wall Street Journal wrote of the movie’s male lead, Gosling: “It’s no secret that Mr. Gosling is one of our most gifted young actors. Still, this is his first romantic lead, and he’s superb — interesting in his inwardness, endearing in his demonstrativeness.”
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