Review of Collateral Beauty (2016) by Sidharth G — 20 Dec 2016

Movie - Collateral Beauty.

Director - David Frankel.

Cast - Will Smith, Kiera Knightley, Helen Mirren, Edward Norton, Michael Pena, Kate Winslet and others.

Language - English.

Release - 16 December, 2016.

Run Time - 1 hour 37 minutes.

Certified - 'U/A'.

Rating - **** stars.

Review - we all have loved ones in our lives, loving them endlessly and seamlessly to an extent where losing them would just snatch away the very urge to live in us. Life seems linear without them, often taking a toll on our lives. The very meaning of life transpires to mean nonentity.

Collateral Beauty has a beautiful script with evident flaws but the movie has a talented star cast that makes this movie gladdening. Directed by David Frankel, the premise of the movie is philosophical which to be honest, a subject that is imbibed in everyone's life who have lost their loved ones. It narrates the story of Howard, an advertising executive who is filled with grief and pain from the loss of his only daughter. Confused, lonely and fragile, he vents out his anger by writing random letters to love which was just a minute fraction of his life, to time which never gave him an opportunity to mend things and death which snatched away his meaning of life but he failed to see the flip side, the Collateral Beauty.

How would you react when Love, Time and Death, an anathema in your life, appear as people with flesh? The movie takes a meaningful turn at this event. Each and everyone are fighting their own battle in their lives, some choose to fight and some give up but a select few neither fight nor give up but are in constant search to find out the real purpose of their very existent life. Easier said than done, it is something that everyone needs to imbibe in their life. We are all connected yet we aren't because of the path we choose.

David Frankel treats the movie astoundingly warm and at the core of it are emotions, narrated with a heavy heart, sure to leave the audience with moist eyes. Though the movie is good with its intent, it is not perfect but has flaws which are evident. The director could have narrated the story with more of an elixir, though he was backed with novelty in dialogues and could have conveyed certain aspects in a convincing manner than leave the audience in a confused state (probably it is what the director wanted). Nonetheless, the movie does what it has to, be a philosophical drama laced with pure emotions and the director captures them with his able actors.

This is presumably a much more meaningful and if not an exaggeration, a better movie of Will Smith since Pursuit of Happiness. As a father in painstaking grief and those muddled expressions, as an audience you will reach out to him and not to forget, he cries heart wrenchingly. Edward Norton in his character was a little unconvincing, was he meant to be a man with no emotions? but he did have certain scenes that were to be emotional, on the flip side, Edward threw up a rather underwhelming performance to be honest. Kate Winslet and Michael Pena were heartwarming in their roles and it was good to see Michael Pena in a role that seldom drops into his clutches. The rest of the cast are convincing in their brief roles. By the way, Jacob Latimore was hilarious.

Technically, by the way, this is not a movie to be to be judged because the emotions were captured on-screen and conveyed in the manner the Director desired (presumably) and the technical team has won their battle. Special mention about the Cinematography, the close up shots of the actors with their eye being the subject, the scenes take a whole new perspective thereby elevating the gravity of the scenes.

Collateral Beauty is a movie to be watched with an open mind, contrary to the views of the established critics, the movie is not at all bad the way it is being portrayed. Just be patient with this movie and it will show you Love till the Time you are seated in the theatres and if not, it is the Death of a cinema that is good with its intent.