Review of Collateral Beauty (2016) by Kaptenvideo — 03 Jan 2017

It has been said that the producers originally wanted "Collateral Beauty" to join this year's end's awards race but ultimately decided against it. Looking at the big names starring here – Will Smith, Helen Mirren, Edward Norton, Kate Winslet, Michael Peña, Keira Knightley, Naomie Harris – one just has to ask: how bad can it be? To avoid the awards race, I mean. At least it's still released in December, as an antidote to much more popular sci-fi actioneer "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story".

Well, let's look at it this way. The movie has enough going on for it to catch attention. Really cool cast, intriguing trailers showing Will Smith talking to abstact supernatural beings such as Death, Time and Love... I also liked the ending although if it does not evolve from the previous plot naturally. And when have you ever seen lots of domino bricks toppling on each other without being at least a little bit impressed? They have quite a few of those scenes, right from the beginning.

The only troubling note I could foresee is the duration of the movie, which is a measly 97 minutes. Since when any self-respecting glamorous Hollywood project of modern times has been satisfied with less than two hours, or something close to it?

And then it happens. Many of the watchers will probably notice soon that they are not not actually enjoying themselves much. For all the ambitions to offer a poignant story about loss, pain and being humane to each other, the result is just... not there. It's too sappy and bland, characters feel like vague shapes than real human beings and the whole plot can be called pretty manipulative.

There's actually two kinds of people who I can imagine actively enjoying this: (1) the ones who have not seen a lot of American movies but quite like them, (2) little girls of all ages or sexes. To put it more bluntly: "Collateral Beauty" is for this sweet little girl in all of us. I am talking about this joyous abstract being who can still believe that acting nice makes one essentially a good person, no matter the actual deeds, and always pays off in the end. After all, it's, of course, a suitable direction for what is essentially a Christmas movie disguised as "Will Smith getting serious project".

Speaking of the handsome devil, this role is very suitable for where the leading man Will Smith currently is with his movie making career. Just as his character has lost all passion for all the seemingly sunny and successful life that has come before, I don't actually remember seeing Smith in a movie and thinking that he must be satisfied with acting for quite some time. Maybe he's really enjoying himself in "Suicide Squad", haven't seen that one yet.

To some degree, it certainly hurts "Collateral Beauty" that Will Smith has always been more of a strong performer than notable actor, even given better material. He's always been adequate and he will not sink the ship here, but he's just... not that good.

I guess it helps a little that Smith uses little bodily movements and tics to convey the overwhelming emotional pain buried inside the character. But he's far from having a convincing, effortless dramatic role presence as some of his colleagues here, mostly Harris, Peña and the ever-great Mirren.

Maybe it's just me... but I have noticed that sometimes moviemakers use this trick to compensate for the mediocre performance of the star. They give him as little dialogue as possible and let him just lurk around, so the screen colleagues and overall atmosphere can make him look better. Remember, say, Eminem in "8 Mile"? This seems to be also the case here but sadly the material is not as interesting to really make it work.

"Collateral Beauty" doesn't offer much in the way of authentic emotions, nor exciting roles from talented cast included here. But as just a Christmas movie for a little girl in all of us, it's quite OK. It looks certainly pretty, which can be confused with good sometimes, when the audience is feeling generous.

By the way, Will Smith is appearing next in "Bright", some Netflix-produced fantasy that is still mostly held under wraps. The plus here is magnificent director David Ayer known for achieving frightening authenticity with his actors, as in "Harsh Times" or "End of Watch". I really liked "Fury", too. So if there's someone who can give Smith his mojo back, maybe it's Ayer.

And if even this will not work out, "Bad Boys" 3 ja 4 seem to be on schedule for 2018 and 2019, repectively.