Collateral Beauty (2016)
Rated PG-13
Starring Will Smith, Edward Norton, Kate Winslet, Michael Pena, Naomie Harris, Helen Mirren, Keira Knightly, Jacob Lattimore,
Directed by David Frankel
The Story:
Howard (Smith) is an advertising executive who owns his own firm. After a personal tragedy, he retreats within himself and his behavior grows stranger and stranger. His three best friends (Norton, Winslet and Pena) also work with him and they are growing concerned that his reckless behavior is going to cause the business to fold and all of their employees will lose their jobs. When they discover that he has written letters to Love, Death and Time, they hire actors (Knightley, Mirren and Lattimore) to play those parts.
Needless to say, the three friends get much more than they bargained for in this endeavor.
It was a very tricky movie to pull off, because quite frankly, aside from a brief glimpse at Howard at the beginning of the movie, there was nothing in the first act of the film that inspired that kind of friendship and loyalty from his friends.
Quite frankly, if not for the rest of the cast, it would have been easy to turn it off.
Howard was so undeserving of anything at all from any character or the audience for that matter.
Thankfully when he finally gets around to interacting with Death, Love and Time, his character finally begins to regain some humanity, and then you can sympathize with what he is going through.
It does indeed pick up though, and the rest of the cast soars as they bring the emotional weight of the film full circle.
A stronger beginning, yes, maybe even making this film a little longer, would have possibly made this an even stronger movie.
I still recommend having a tissue nearby before it is all over though.
Final Grade: B
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