Collateral Beauty – Film Review by Emily Elphinstone

Director: David Frankel
Writer: Allan Loeb
Stars: Will Smith, Edward Norton, Kate Winslet

It is with some relief that one realises in the opening moments of Collateral Beauty that despite what the trailers may suggest; the film is not about genuine personifications of Love, Time, and Death, visiting a grieving father. In fact these figures are actors, who have been hired by his colleagues to either save Howard (Will Smith) from his despair, or to provide enough footage of him looking unhinged to force him into giving up the controlling share in the advertising agency he runs with Whit (Ed Norton), Claire (Kate Winslet), and Simon (Michael Peña); after the private investigator they hire reveals he has written letters to these three ‘abstractions’. Heart warming! Sadly this is the only relief provided in an all too disingenuous film, which attempts to provide profound insights into human emotion, while failing to create any genuine feeling itself. Directed by David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada), there may be some nice images; but even these fail to give a genuine sense of the world the characters live in despite being shot largely on location in New York.

Though the film boasts an impressive cast, no one is given enough material to provide any real depth of character: Howard splits his time between morosely building elaborate domino structures at the office, sitting in his unfurnished apartment, and angrily cycling around the city; and his three friends and colleagues are apparently trying to save the struggling business, but appear to spend all their time watching Howard and looking guilty. Meanwhile, the actors (played by Helen Mirren, Keira Knightley, and Jacob Latimore) are trapped within an overly constrained plot structure: Each has 2 ‘chance’ meetings with Howard, one introductory, one confrontational. They are supervised by one agency exec each, in turn teaching ‘profound’ lessons that show they really are the embodiment of their characters; the most tiresome being ‘Time’ (Jacob Latimore) counselling career woman Claire about her wish to become a mother. Mirren is the only one to come close to real glints of personality, but all this is drowned out by the overly earnest film. Howard, meanwhile, gains far more by finally going to a support group led by the sympathetic Madeleine (Naomie Harris) than he does from the charade; and the finale’s twists only serve as the final nail in a well-sealed coffin.