Collateral Beauty: Movie Review
Director David Frankel (“The Devil Wears Prada”, “Marley & Me”) is back with his star-studded holiday drama, “Collateral Beauty”. Unfortunately, even with a line-up that includes Will Smith, Kate Winslet, Keira Knightley, Helen Mirren, Edward Norton, Michael Peña, and Naomi Harris, the heavy-handed story and manipulative direction overpower the fine performances from the entire cast.
Nearly a year after the loss of his six-year-old daughter to cancer, Howard (Smith) remains retreated from reality. When he is not sitting home alone or riding his bike through the New York City streets, he is sitting in his office setting up massive domino displays and then knocking them down. Howard also writes angry letters, but not to people. He writes them to Love, Time, and Death.
Howard’s friends (and co-workers) are not only worried him, but also his company that is about to collapse if they can’t find a way to get him to agree to sell it. Howard’s best friend Whit (Norton) owns only 40% of the advertising firm, so he is unable to make decisions regarding the business without Howard signing off. This becomes increasingly difficult since Howard won’t talk to anyone. Simon (Peña) and Claire (Winslet) also have a great deal invested in the firm.
The only way to save the company and its’ staff is for Howard’s friends to prove that he is not mentally fit to run it. They decide to hire actors to play the parts of Love, Time, and Death in hopes that it will cause Howard to publicly display how troubled he is. Bridgette (Mirren) is given the role of Death, Raffi (Jacob Latimore) is Time, and Amy (Knightley) takes the part of Love. Needless-to-say, Howard isn’t very receptive to his initial encounters with the actors, but he does begin to believe they are who they pretend to be.
If the story doesn’t sound complicated enough, it turns out that Howard’s friends are each having their own personal struggles (aside from losing the company). Because Howard is the central character, it feels like the other issues are just glossed over. I found this to be a problem considering someone else in the group was also dealing with death. I should be thankful though because if each of Howard’s friends’ issues were given as much time as his, the film would never end.
Smith gives a strong performance here and none of the issues I had with “Collateral Beauty” have anything to do with that. Even the predictable final act revelation with grief counselor (Harris) doesn’t take away from Smith’s performance. It’s just a shame that with so much talent involved, we get something so underwhelming and contrived.
By: Marc Ferman