Review of Collateral Beauty (2016) by Orlando O — 13 Apr 2017

Collateral Beauty is a drama film that could have been great with well-done characters and a strong meaning about grief and loss. For some reason, the script and the plot was cliché and predictable. Do not get me wrong, the film has a great cast talent and tries to become a different take on a Christmas carol.

The plot follows Howard (Will Smith) a successful executive until his life is turned upside down when his daughter passed away. He became so enclosed and depressed that even his business partners worry for him and their stake with their company. Whit (Edward Norton), Claire (Kate Winslet), and Simon (Michael Pena) hired a private investigator to capture evidence that Howard is incapable of running the company and notices he is writing letters to love, time, and death. The trio tries to hire three stage actors to portray as Love, Time, and Death. So they can try to help Howard and is unstable mental condition.

I love the cast they have in the film like Will Smith, Edward Norton, Keira Knightley, Michael Pena, Naomie Harris, Jacob Latimore, Helen Mirren, and Kate Winslet. They all did their best. The script tried to give each of these characters a bit of development. Like Whit going through a divorce and is trying to be there for his daughter. Simon struggling with an illness that he has not shared to his wife. The script was unbalance trying to fit in with these characters struggles making the direction feel incoherent. In the end, these characters are forgettable.

It has its predictability's and cliché that the film is flawed. Even though, it is suppose to be meaningful and emotional with the state of loss and grief.

Collateral Beauty surprisingly was not as good as I was expecting from a script that created forgettable characters, a direction that is boring and incoherent. I was expecting a lot more from this.