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Movie Review: Collateral Beauty

by Bill Wine

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Helen Mirren plays Death and Keira Knightley is Love. If that alone doesn't tell you that Collateral Beauty is anything but formulaic, nothing does.

Of course, being different isn't the same thing as being effective, more about which later.

Will Smith is the headliner in this melancholy dramedy, although it turns out that he's pretty much an equal-time ensemble-cast player who has only a handful of lines in the film's first act.

Smith is Howard Inlet, the owner of a successful New York City advertising firm, who is devastatingly and understandably grief-stricken by a tragic event that sends him into a tailspin of deep depression as he retreats from life and becomes a recluse if not a zombie.

In trying to find an outlet for his anger and sadness, and in order to question the universe and hopefully make some kind of sense of what has occurred, he writes letters to three abstract concepts: the spirits of Love (Knightley), Time (Jacob Latimore), and Death (Mirren).
To his surprise, he receives responses from all three, who also turn up.

Now, if we were to remain anchored in reality, these three would appear to be hired actors playing roles.
But are they?

Well, yes and no.

Either way, Howard begins to see how these abstractions interweave and connect people, and how collateral damage can evolve into collateral hope.

This with the help of Howard's seemingly concerned partners (Kate Winslet, Edward Norton, and Michael Pena) – who have hired the way-off-Broadway thespians to interact with Howard.

And who, by the by, are also interested in selling the faltering agency, even if it means declaring their boss mentally incompetent.
That's the "yes" part. The "no" part comes later when, well, never mind.

Anyway, they try to reconnect with him, as does the helpful and understanding leader of a support group of grieving parents, played by Naomie Harris.

Director David Frankel (Miami Rhapsody, The Devil Wears Prada, Marley & Me, The Big Year, Hope Springs, One Chance) does a decent job of juggling all the subplots and doing justice to each character's emotional baggage.

Is this spiritually uplifting tale dealing with grief also downright emotionally manipulative?

You're darn tootin'.

But will you mind?

Well, for those of you who enjoy smiling through tears: not really. For those of you already running toward the exit sign: oh, yeah.

Some sad dramas (such as Manchester by the Sea) understate the case; some (such as this one) do not. But both approaches can work in putting us in touch with our vulnerability and fragility.

That said, Collateral Beauty is a brave and perhaps foolish stab at a tough, unusual movie concept.

Which makes it an easy movie to make fun of.

Scripted by Allan Loeb, Collateral Beauty certainly offers a convoluted but intriguing and affecting setup as part of its aspiration to be a heartwarming holiday tale about reclaiming one's emotional mojo in the wake of incapacitating heartbreak.

Frankel's Oscar-credentialed cast (winners Mirren and Winslet, nominees Smith, Norton, and Knightley) remain eminently watchable in what will by many be construed as an off-putting tearjerker, but by others be assimilated as poignantly life-affirming.

You make the call while we opt for the latter.

So we'll mourn 2-1/2 stars out of 4 for Collateral Beauty, a comedic melodrama that wears its heart rather shamelessly on its well-intentioned sleeve.

But as holiday-season movies go, if it's a failure, it's a noble one.

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