Collateral Beauty Review

Written By Sean Tucker

Hey O&G fan, last night we attended the world premiere of Collateral Beauty at the Jazz Theater Lincoln Center NYC. Cast, Press and Guest came out to see what could be a Oscar season nomination. As always a brief description of the movie:

Retreating from life after a tragedy, a man questions the universe by writing to Love, Time and Death. Receiving unexpected answers, he begins to see how these things interlock and how even loss can reveal moments of meaning and beauty.

REVIEW

Ok let's begin with Howard (Will Smith). The movie opens with Howard giving a speech to his employees with his usual smile and self confidence, fast forward to 3 years later and now he's a broken shell of a man. His friends and business partners think he's finally lost his mind from grief due to the loss of his only child. The business is failing and his partners fear that he won't sell his shares in order to save it, so they hire 3 actors to play (Love, Time and Death) the three entities he's been writing letters to in hopes to prove to the other board members he's actually a bit crazy.

The movie is meant to be a tear jerker and it is. Critics have slammed it saying its trying to be Manchester by the Bay, But for the average moviegoer, who doesn’t care about being manipulated into a sobbing, sloppy flesh-bag of tears, they will enjoy Collateral Beauty. Will Smith is his usual suave self and for me he played the role great. Whit (Ed Norton), Claire (Kate Winslet), and Simon (Michael Peña,) were a pretty good supporting cast, Although for me, I felt they were all about themselves until they learned their own lessons about Love, Time and Death.

Keira Knightley, Jacob Latimore and Helen Mirren, respectively, ( personifications of Love, Time, and Death ) were played very well ( especially Mirren ) I think they were the saving grace of the movie. The movie does drag a bit and has some moments where you wanna scream "alright already, move on"

Collateral Beauty isn’t exactly a great movie as noted, but it was very entertaining and the All about the Tears kind of movie it promised to be. I'm giving the movie 3 1/2 stars.