Review of Collateral Beauty (2016) by Rangan R — 12 Sep 2017

It's a mediocre overly manipulative movie, and the twist in it was way too good for the movie it was in. Then the second twist in it, was utter crap and really brought the movie down. Though ironically what seems like a golden hallmark movie where Edward norton would be played by Kirk Cameron and there'd be an overly Jesus tone to it, I thought it handled aspects of loss well and raised legit points. Though not everyone was great in it and it was cliche at times.

I wouldn't say it was deep, since it wasn't, but it handled loss in an interesting manner that wasn't overly schmaltzy, it saved that for the very end. Which was a shame since they kind of give it away in the trailer. Are they death, love, and time? Or aren't they? They totally are. But see that didn't make sense since the three that hires them can all see them at the same time, and conveniently they pair up to the people that need them most.

The biggest issue was the motivation driving the scheme was selfish on all fronts, that there weren't any actual good guys. Will Smith was being a dick for letting his daughter's death destroy him and the company he ran, the other three were too pushy and kind of a-holes even though they were trying to save every employee's job. That didn't make sense since that seemed too convenient and perfect of a deal that Will Smith had to sign off on, so you kind of hated Will's character for being so selfish, but then again he did lose his daughter, so you as the viewer are conflicted. Then the three "actors/deities" were kind of assholes since they took the money and didn't even use it to put on their stupid play. Love was crap, Death started out good, but Time was consistently great, hope we see him in more movies.

That ending main twist though, if it weren't there then this would rate lower and be just 100% cheese. It was decently buried, though slightly given away if you're smart enough to ask why his wife who runs a grief group would be the only one to repeat their daughter's cause of death. Then after that great reveal, they ruin it with the kid's ghost knocking down his dominos that he builds in his office instead of running his company. With the final moment being the husband and wife walking in central park and on the bridge over them you see that the three actors were actually spirits. It's basically A Christmas Carol now that I think of it. With a gimp character and all.