By Keila McCabe’20 and Jordan Murray’20
‘Collateral Beauty’ follows Howard (Will Smith) through his journey to overcome the death of his daughter. Howard immediately becomes depressed, and it begins to affect his performance at work. In order to cope with the grief, he writes letters to Love, Time and Death. His coworkers and friends find out and try to help him, hiring a team of actors portrayed by Keira Knightley, Jacob Latimore and Helen Mirren that come to visit him during the day. The movie is about overcoming struggles and the different ways that people deal with grief.
Keila
Plot: The plot line is a lot to follow and not far from complete scattered mayhem. The story has a sweet beginning and follows a relatable story of losing a loved one. Despite the promise for a feel good classic, the plot takes a rather wicked turn when it becomes a movie about manipulation and some of Howard’s best friends doing anything necessary to try and help him. The story of grief makes an attempt to be an emotion-filled movie, but it seems as if they trying too hard to appeal and relate to people.
Expectations vs. Reality: The movie’s trailer was incredibly promising as it advertised a sentimental holiday movie but the actual film was confusing and unexpected. The movie is filled with a star-studded cast with many winning and nominated actors. The trailer showed that Howard wrote letters to Love, Time and Death and they came to meet him, and that was his way of coping with grief. However, the movie follows Howard’s “friends” that scam him into getting his work life together.
Drama: The dramatic scenes in the movie are one of the few positive aspects in this movie. The actors in this film perform with angst, love and a large variety of emotions that make the movie captivating.
Acting: Despite the lackluster outline of the movie, the actors and actresses really try to make this movie great. With an A-list cast such as in this movie, one might expect a thrilling and amazing movie that would go down as a classic. The acting is amazing; Knightley, Latimore and Mirren are great. The only questionable aspect of the acting is how such acclaimed movie stars chose to be in this movie.
Ending: The movie ends with a somewhat big plot twist. However, it is also relatively predictable after following the movie throughout. The ending wraps up the story and Howard’s different relationships well but leaves some supporting storylines unfinished.
Rate: 2 stars
Jordan
Opening: The movie opens with a flashback to three years in the past. It shows Howard happy about his job and his life. It then cuts to the present and the mood of the film completely changes to a sad feel. The beginning is executed very well and the change in mood draws the viewer in and makes them more curious about what is going to happen next. Also, the opening explains the backstory of Howard’s life very well, so the viewer never has to piece facts together or is confused about the storyline. Lastly, the beginning reflects the mood for the rest of the movie and sets the scene very well.
Drama: “Collateral Beauty” is a movie filled with drama and passion. The actors show so much emotion when delivering their lines. The characters’ Love, Death, and Time are portrayed excellently.When they express their responses to Howard’s letter, they show so much emotion. Though the movie is filled with drama, the relationship between Whit(Edward Norton) and his daughter could have been developed more and shown more throughout the movie. I also believe they could have expanded more on the struggle for Claire (Kate Winslet) to have a baby.
Plot Twists: The movie has one main plot twist towards the end; however, it is very predictable. It is disappointing because I thought that there should have been more surprises, which would make me more curious and wanting to know more even after the movie was over.
Overall story and plot: The story they were trying to tell is amazing. The movie tries to show the struggle of losing a child and tries to express the feelings and emotions that go along with it. The acting is quite good, but I just feel the plot could have expanded a little bit more and delve even more into Howard’s struggle and the relationships between him and everyone surrounding him.
Rate: 3/5 stars
