Collateral Beauty (2016) is a story about a successful advertising executive who goes through a tough time after the loss of his only daughter. The film is directed by David Frankel, and the famous Will Smith stars as the lead character, Howard Inlet, who refrains from daily activities and begins to live as if he has given up on life. As some sort of coping mechanism, he writes letters to Death, Love, and Time. His life changes when he actually receives personal responses from the three abstractions; he begins to realize that beauty can be found even in the most remarkable tragedies. Sounds magical, doesn't it? Well, this is by no means a fantasy film where the unreal comes to life, but it sure does promise us a few magical moments, which it does not deliver. The film is painfully cliche and cheesy, but great disappointment comes from the structure of the plot itself. The good cast and visuals, unfortunately, cannot save this movie from being a bad one.
The movie is not short of good actors; besides Will Smith, we also have Kate Winslet, Hellen Mirren, Naomie Harris, Edward Norton, and a few other household names who have important roles in this overdone motion picture. All these great actors seem to be wasted in the unnecessarily complicated story. The plot consists of tangled events that are unnecessary to the story. For example, the scene where Howard's friends/colleagues are plotting to send him three actors to act as the three abstractions in order to make him seem crazy and, in that way, save their company takes away the beauty that could've been present in the movie. As a result of scenes like this, I, as the audience, found myself watching scenes that I wished were not included, cringing at the realization that this movie was not at all what it had been marketed to be. This is a drama film in which the characters are trying to get a depressed man to think that he is in a fantasy world. It would have made more sense if the filmmakers had just made the film a fantasy and removed the unnecessarily complicated creations of a movie within a movie. The message would have resonated profoundly.
Having said that, the technical elements of the movie are not bad; the Christmas lights and the overall lighting create a nice sentimental mood. The marketing of the film, however, sold the movie to audiences falsely; when you watch it you almost feel as if it was all a fraud to get ...
