COLLATERAL BEAUTY – Review

(L-r) WILL SMITH as Howard and Helen Mirren as Brigitte in the New Line Cinemas, Village Roadshow Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures drama “COLLATERAL BEAUTY,” a Warner Bros Pictures release. Photo by Barry Wetcher.

Will Smith heads a star-filled cast, as a father still struggling with overwhelming grief two years after the death of his six-year-old daughter, a man who is visited by three people claiming to be Death, Time and Love, in COLLATERAL BEAUTY.

Actually, the three people are out-of-work actors hired to play the roles of Death, Time and Love by the CEO of the ad agency he co-founded. This twist allows COLLATERAL BEAUTY to skirt the “angels” pitfall of a too-precious Hallmark movie. The film walks this fine line throughout, or at least until the last two scenes, when it falls off its tight rope – two scenes which, ironically, are not necessary to the story. It seems director David Frankel (who directed both MARLEY AND ME and THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA) couldn’t quite make up his mind what kind of movie he wanted to make. He weaves philosophical discussion and some serious thought into the dialog but the film is constantly in a balancing act between serious drama about grief and something more canned and clichéd.

The title refers to the idea of noticing the beauty around you. COLLATERAL BEAUTY does feature a strong cast, including Helen Mirren, Keira Knightley, Edward Norton, Kate Winslet, Michael Pena, and Naomie Harris. The film gives Will Smith an opportunity to show off his dramatic skills but the real show-stealer is Helen Mirren, as the entertaining, boastful actor playing the role of Death and providing most of the comic relief.

Two years earlier, Howard (Smith) fired up clients and employees alike at his New York ad agency. In his innovative approach to advertising, he often talked about three pivotal elements of all human life – Time, Love and Death, saying we wish we had more time, we long for love and we fear death. Since the death of his daughter from cancer, Howard still comes to work every day, but spends his time building elaborate domino structures while avoiding interacting with anyone. Meanwhile, the company he co-founded with Whit (Norton) and Simon (Pena) and ran with the help of protegée Claire (Winslet) has been sinking with its charismatic leader. Worried, they hire a private detective (Ann Dowd) to follow him and discovered he has written letters to Death, Time and Love. They come up with the surprising plan of hiring three actors to portray these concepts and speak to him about the letters. Whit hires out-of-work actors for the parts – Brigitte (Mirren) takes the role of Death, Amy (Knightley) plays Love and young Raffi (Jacob Latimore) is cast as Time.

The idea sounds like it might have some therapeutic value but that is not the reason they do it. While they are all heartbroken about what has happened to their friend, they are also worried about what is happening to the company without Howard. They are in danger of losing all they have worked for if the company goes bankrupt. There is an offer to buy the company but Howard has refused to sign the papers. Aggressively, Whit comes up with the idea of having Howard declared incompetent. Essentially, they are going to “gaslight” their friend, covertly filming him talking to Death, Time and Love, somehow erase the actors from the video, and offer the doctored video as proof of incompetence.

The whole idea takes a quite a suspension of disbelief. However, Smith’s character reacts the way you would expect a real person to react if a random stranger told you they were Death – he tries to get away from the crazy person as quickly as possible. But eventually, as these three people keep turning up, he starts to talk to them and you sense a little belief sneaking in. Meanwhile, Howard is also starting to work through his loss in conversations he has with Madeline (Naomie Harris), who runs a bereavement group.

There is a certain meanness underneath this scheme, which gives the story a little uncomfortable edge, but other factors push it in that too-precious direction. Whit, Claire and Simon are all grappling with their own problems, and each pair up with one of the actors to work through those issues. Even the bereavement counselor has a hidden story.

A film that deals with the death of a child is going to delve into some heavy emotion, and Mirren provides most of the comic relief needed to give the audience a break. Mirren’s Brigitte is a delightful theatrical type, a mix of egotist and wise woman, providing insights and smiles. When Norton’s character Whit is smitten by Knightley’s Amy and follows her into a makeshift theater where the three unemployed actors struggling to create a play,, he expects them to jump at his job offer. Instead, Mirren’s character imperiously demands more money, After Brigitte’s first encounter with Will Smith’s Howard in her role as Death, she brags about her performance while also fishing for compliments.

But having built up a pretty good film that avoids the worst sins of this genre, COLLATERAL BEAUTY blows it all in the last two scenes, going off the edge into “angels territory.” It undermines all the good work before, tipping over the delicate balance so carefully built up over the film, so that it all comes tumbling down into a mess, like all those dominoes structures Will Smith’s character builds throughout the film.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars