Collateral Beauty
Directed by:
David FrankelScreenplay:
Allan LoebCinematography:
Maryse AlbertiComposer:
Theodore ShapiroCast:
Will Smith, Edward Norton, Kate Winslet, Michael Peña, Helen Mirren, Naomie Harris, Keira Knightley, Jacob Latimore, Ann Dowd, Liza Colón-Zayas, Natalie Gold (more)VOD (4)
Plots(1)
The film follows successful New York advertising executive Howard Inlet (Will Smith) as he struggles to come to terms with the sudden death of his six-year-old daughter. Unable to deal with his grief, Howard abandons his company and becomes a depressed recluse, living the same monotonous routine and riding his bike around the city every day. In a bid to deal with his pain and fragile mind, Howard goes in search of answers and decides to write letters to Love (Keira Knightley), Time (Jacob Latimore) and Death (Helen Mirren) to question the way his life has turned out. When they each appear to give him the answers he's been looking for, Howard, with a little help from his friends and colleagues, engages with them in the hope of once again finding peace. (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment)
(more)Reviews (4)
A typical American drama featuring a parade of American actors and emotions that couldn’t be more artificial. Unfortunately.
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A fairytale built upon artificial foundations. Even though all of the characters go through their own small or big personal crisis or tragedy, in the end, there’s nothing the superstar actor trio couldn’t handle! Not only Collateral Beauty’s creators rely on relentlessly milking emotions out of the audience, the viewer is downright turned into an idiot by the way some stories end up. Watching this movie, I think I was in greater pain than some of the main characters.
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Collateral Beauty lured most viewers in with an amazing cast and confusing trailers that enticed them to see a slightly different film than the one we were served. At least that's how it was for me. I can't say that it was an outright bad film, but I guess I was probably expecting a slightly stronger story that would have moved me more and not forced me to sympathize with the main character Howard too blatantly. Which is a shame in the end, considering the presence of themes like the death of offspring or the musings on the three instances of Love, Death and Time. In short, it's a film that stands mainly on its cast, but which is undermined by a somewhat muddled script.
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Sure, it's a tearjerker, and sure, it's meant to squeeze some emotions and a bunch of tears out of you, but in my case, it just didn't work. On the one hand, it is due to the excellent cast, where I enjoyed every actor, on the other hand, there was a surprise in the plot, which I somehow just did not expect, which made it all the more interesting.
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