Love. Time.
Death.
By Chris Sabga
 |
Release Date: December
16th, 2016 – U.S.
Rating:
PG-13
Genre: Drama
Running Time:
97 minutes
Director: David
Frankel
Writers:
Allan Loeb
Cast:
Will
Smith, Edward Norton,
Kate Winslet, Michael Peña,
Naomie Harris,
Keira Knightley,
Jacob Latimore, Ann Dowd,
Kylie Rogers
|
Can
there be anything worse than losing a child? "Collateral Beauty"
examines the raw depths of that pain.
Howard
(Will Smith) runs a successful advertising agency. He and his methods
are described as "fearless." Then his daughter dies. She
was only six years old. Overwhelmed by grief, Howard becomes a shell
and retreats into himself. The day-to-day details of his work no
longer interest him. He still shows up to the office, but he now
spends his time there building elaborate structures using dominoes –
only to knock them right back down after he's finished, tile by tile
by agonizing tile. Then he starts the frustrating process all over
again. After years of this, business is – needless to say –
suffering badly.
It's
up to his overburdened and overstressed co-workers to pick up the
slack. His partner and best friend, Whit (Edward Norton), is kind of
a twit. He got caught with his pants down, was forced into a divorce,
and had to sell 10% of his shares in the company to pay for it.
Howard, he explains, did him a great favor by buying him out. But
that's also why the company is currently in the predicament it's in.
Because Whit is no longer a 50-50 partner, nothing can move forward
without Howard – who is inadvertently holding the business hostage
by not being mentally or emotionally present. He has stubbornly
closed himself off from the world and refuses to talk to even his
closest friends and associates. Claire (Kate Winslet) is terrified
that everything they've worked a decade for will suddenly
"evaporate." Simon (Michael Peña) has his own personal,
private reasons for wanting the agency to get back on its feet. His
family's future is at stake. Meanwhile, Whit has family problems of
his own. His daughter (Kylie Rogers, "Miracles from Heaven")
says she hates him because he's a "philanthropist." She
means "philanderer," of course – cute!
Whit,
Claire, and Simon get together and attempt to orchestrate what is
essentially a hostile takeover of their friend's organization. As
understandable as their motives may be, their methods seem
reprehensible on the surface. This is where "Collateral Beauty"
almost lost me. Almost.
They
hire a private investigator (Ann Dowd) to look for the "smoking
gun" that will allow them to question Howard's competency in
running the firm. She breaks into a public mailbox – a federal
offense – and discovers that he has been writing angry letters. But
they're not addressed to people. Without revealing too much,
it isn't long before he receives a personal response to his heated
messages – from Death (Helen Mirren), Love (Keira Knightley), and
Time (Jacob Latimore). All of them, he rages, conspired to take his
daughter away from him.
Would
you believe it if Death, for example, visited you in the form of an
elderly white woman? Howard does, and that's enough to motivate him
to finally attend a grief counseling session. It's led by
Madeleine (Naomie Harris), who noticed him standing outside and
staring into the window during previous meetings. He is very
reluctant to open up but responds positively to her patience and
kindness. She lost a child too, so she understands. After her
daughter died, she was approached in the hospital and advised to
recognize the collateral beauty all around her. It took her a long
time before she comprehended the meaning of those words, and he
certainly isn't ready to hear that message yet.
"Collateral
Beauty" is the kind of movie that you will either love or hate –
there is no middle ground. It's getting ugly reviews by critics. Part
of me can understand why. The trailer misleadingly depicts the movie
as light and whimsical when it's actually anything but. Will Smith's
character is maddeningly obstinate, his co-workers come across
initially as unlikeable and opportunistic, and even Death, Love, and
Time aren't given clear motivations at first. I spent the early
portion of the film angered by its apparent bait-and-switch and dark,
depressing, unexpectedly all-too-realistic tone.
But
then, slowly but surely, the story sucked me in and the incredible
cast won me over. After all, losing a child isn't supposed to be
fluffy and full of rainbows. If the film had depicted a tragedy of
that magnitude as airily and marshmallowy as the preview did,
reactions would be even more negative than they already are. So much
could have gone wrong with this concept logically, but the screenplay
does a fairly decent job of explaining and adhering to all of the
"rules" it sets up.
Whether
you will be moved by the movie's message, I suppose, depends on how
cynical you are. This, I think, requires a certain soft spot in your
heart. It ultimately worked for me, even though it did take a while
for me to warm up to it.
The
film is simultaneously ugly and beautiful, anger-inducing and
serenely moving, heartbreaking and heartwarming – much like
collateral beauty itself.
Side
Note from Silver Screen Sister:
"This
is the best movie I've
ever seen!" she gushed. Then again, she says that after every
movie. Clearly, she doesn't go to too many, but her picks are always
top-notch ("Chef,"
"Steve
Jobs,"
"Boyhood." The less said about watching "Black Swan"
with her, the better.)
"Edward
Norton was great," she praised. "Has he done anything else?
He now has a new fan!"
"What
else has Helen Mirren been in?"
I'm
sure these two up-and-coming youngsters will greatly appreciate her
support.
