Review of Collateral Beauty (2016) by Cinephile455 — 18 Dec 2016

This is the kind of movie that critics should be celebrating rather than savaging. At a time when most movies are based on existing IP or fail to explore any theme, here is one that is an original story idea and that is about interesting thematic ideas. It deserves to be a new Christmas Classic.

If you like This is Us on NBC or It's A Wonderful Life, check this movie out. If you like movies and shows about positive emotional growth and relatable human emotions and experiences, you will enjoy this. I wouldn't be surprised if audiences discover this movie on video or television and realize how great it is, much the way both Shawshank and It's A Wonderful Life were discovered after theatrical release. Why critics celebrate bleak films like The Revenant and Hell or High Water (both of which are not about relatable experiences) and yet dismiss movies like this as sentimental and manipulative is baffling to me. All art is by design manipulative; it is meant to elicit emotion in a very structured, calculated way. And this movie is not overly emotional or sentimental. It is just like Shawshank and It's A Wonderful Life in terms of emotions; that is, the emotions are earned and not melodramatic.

The screenwriter came up with a brilliant script, and the director and actors realized his vision beautifully. Go see this movie in the theater, so that Hollywood will make more like it. Critics who have dismissed this movie know nothing about the screenwriting craft and how difficult it is to come up with an idea and story of this caliber.