'Collateral Beauty' Review

Image from Screen Rant

By Darian Scalamoni

            About a year and a half ago there was an announcement that Alfonso Gomez-Rejon was set to helm a movie titled Collateral Beauty starring Will Smith, Hugh Jackman, Rooney Mara and Jason Segel. With the director attached and amazing ensemble it immediately skyrocketed to the top of my most anticipated list for 2016. Soon after, Jackman, Mara and Segel left but were replaced by other top talents including Edward Norton, Kate Winslet and Helen Mirren and there’s still plenty more passed that. The trailers have pitched this film as one that stars Smith as a man who has lost his daughter and he writes letters to Death, Love and Time only to discover human embodiments of the things are coming to answer his letters. Unfortunately, the trailer shows a completely different movie than you’re getting into. I personally don’t believe these are spoilers because it is the plot of the movie but if you’re worried and want to see the movie for yourself, leave now and come back to read this review after you see it.

            Now to get into the movie. Yes, Will Smith’s character of Howard does write these letters to the three elements of life but instead of people actually embodying these entities, they’re hired actors. Whit, Claire and Simon (Edward Norton, Kate Winslet and Michael Pena respectively) play three co-workers and best friends of Howard, who just three years ago was a charming, successful head of an advertising company but since the death of his daughter, he’s been getting filled more and more with grief. He is no longer talking to his friends, barely eating and is letting the company slip. As Whit tries to get to his friend, he hires a private investigator to see if there’s anything Howard isn’t telling him and she discovers that Howard is writing the letters. This is when they hatch up a plan to hire actors to play the “parts” for Death, Time and Love. The idea is to make Howard seem unstable enough that he must give up control of the company to Whit.

            I walked out of this movie completely disappointed. The film is overly manipulative and though it has positive intentions, it sure isn’t conceived that way. The movie has many problems with it but before we get into that, let’s begin with the good. Despite a weak script, Will Smith gives one of his best performances as a man truly struggling with living after losing the most important aspect of his life. He encompasses how I would expect to see a father react and live with a loss that significant. Also, the other two standouts are Helen Mirren and Jacob Lattimore who play Death and Time, respectively. Mirren absolutely shines in her role and even provides a bit of humor as she takes her role of Death to be her “calling card” for her acting career. The young actor Lattimore, who is surrounded by Oscar-nominated talent throughout the film is given the best material to work with in the movie and he stands out because of it. With the rest of the all-star cast; Norton, Winslet, Pena, Keira Knightley and Naomie Harris, they completely fall flat. They’re absolutely wasted in the movie and could’ve been played by absolutely anyone and had the same effect.

            The plot and script try to anchor an emotional reaction from viewers to invoke crying and strong feelings in your heart but doesn’t do anything beyond that. The writing of this movie tries to be a portrait of grief and how to deal with life itself facing a tragedy as Howard did, but the movie doesn’t do a good job of being sincere or authentic whatsoever. What group of friends would ever try to push their friend who gave them their start out of the business that he started just three years after his daughter died? The movie beats you over the head with feelings and direct symbolism that it doesn’t make for a movie that you can enjoy but as if you’re living in a lecture of how life is supposed to be.

            The movie as a whole is very Hollywood-ish and campy. Most of the characters are flimsy portrayals of “normal people” played by some of the industry’s finest attempting to do their best with an awful script. The unethical, emotional blast in the face didn’t live up to the hype of the cast, premise or even its trailer that sold a different movie. I was sitting in the theater for much of the film trying to find reasons to care for any of the characters other than Howard even though that the end result that the director, David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada, Marley & Me) was attempting to achieve was just that. The movie is a complete misfire and other than a few good performances, there’s nothing good about the end product.

4.5/10