Retreating from life after a tragedy, a man questions the universe by writing to Love, Time and Death. Receiving unexpected answers within the “Collateral Beauty”. When successful New York advertising executive Howard Inlet (Will Smith) suffers a great tragedy in the loss of his daughter, he retreats from life, isolating himself from the relationships that he treasured so closely. While his concerned friends try desperately to reconnect with him, he seeks answers from the universe by writing letters to Love (Keira Knightley), Time (Jacob Latimore) and Death (Helen Mirren), seeking the answers for his unfortunate spell. But it’s not until his notes bring unexpected personal responses that he begins to understand how these constants interlock in a life fully lived, and how even the deepest loss can reveal moments of meaning and beauty. “Collateral Beauty” is directed by David Frankel, and is rated PG-13 for thematic elements and brief strong language.

After watching the popular trailer to “Collateral Beauty”, I gathered a couple of aspects that made me even slightly intrigued to check out this film. First of all, there’s Will Smith’s emotional delivery to give us a glimpse at perhaps maybe one more poke at an Oscar nomination. Second, this story revolves around the recovery after a man loses his kids, and his friends are stuck trying to figure out what they can do to help him. Third, Smith is visited by spirits who identify as three different spirits of universal emotion, so there’s a supernatural element to it. And finally, the attitude of this film seems to be a roller-coaster of tear-jerking material that is sure to give audiences a warm feeling around the holidays. Now that I’ve told you all of my observations, I can happily explain to you why NONE of them hit their desired marks for this mess of a movie, and how a movie with so much potential crashed and burned so quickly in a 92 minute sit.

David Frankel isn’t someone who I would pretend to know or understand a lot about his directing, but after scanning through his filmography and seeing his latest big screen offering, I can clearly say that David was in over his head on this project. This is truly one of the poorest directed efforts in terms of creative and artistic expression that I have seen this year. This film lacks a great level of detail when it comes to stacking the emotional depositions for what goes into Howard’s grief. A lot of that can be blamed on the bland script (Which I will get to later), but I never felt inspired by any level of sadness in this movie. In fact, the tone for the film, at least for the first hour, feels like an awkward comedy. I literally had to stop for a moment and make sure that I was in the right movie because I waited and waited for a change in tone that didn’t come until a half hour left in the film, and even then it felt obviously constructed that way, instead of a fluent screenplay that feels authentically gifted at setting the pace.

Then there’s the part of the movie that made me angry; the manipulation. This movie and the trailers that accompany it are two different things. I set the creative ground earlier for what I was expecting from this movie, but what I got was something mind-baffling. The characters are deceitful and conniving, the script dooms Smith to a supporting character in his own movie, and the film dooms us in two twists during the movie that kind of null-in-voids the other one, making a waste of time for what is already a thin screenplay. These are people we are supposed to invest in and feel compassion for? It pains me because I want to spoil how bad every one of you have been fooled with this trailer, but I’m going to let you all have your day in the sun and bask in it yourselves. As for Howard, it’s a very mind-numbing choice to understand how a movie that centers around his actions following his daughter’s death casts him aside to tell these other supporting cast’s story arcs. It feels like this movie was made far too complex for a story that practically writes itself, but that’s what were dealing with here. Smith isn’t a prominent figure in the movie until there is about forty-five minutes left, and by then the game of insensitivity within this film’s characters and tone will leave you heartless when this movie depends on that the most. There doesn’t feel like any kind of transformation by the end of the movie for Howard, and the film’s final scenes feel like a scene or two was left on the editing room floor to diminish the expositional chemistry between Smith and Naomie Harris.

While I’m on the subject of characters, I can talk about the performances that collectively felt wooden in their emotionless deliveries. Albeit except for Smith who always gift-wraps some emotionally touching moments in even the worst of films, the entirety of this cast feel out of place in name value, as well as character motivations that always had me scratching my head. Because the movie takes the time to relate to us how important their character arcs are, we learn three equally taxing storylines that take up much more of the film than they rightfully deserve. There’s something authentic about Edward Norton being an asshole of sorts here, so when the movie wants us to feel empathy for a lack of relationship he has with his daughter, I couldn’t be more distant from the emotional center that this movie tries to enact. Kate Winslet and Michael Pena are phoning their performances in, Helen Mirren has zero versatility in what makes her character stand out, Keira Knightley’s arc is boring, and Jacob Lattimore feels forgettable to the point when it surprises you every time he pops up. As I mentioned, Smith is the only reason to partake in this bomb, and that is because the complexity of his character’s responses deserve to be seen closer and not from a distance like the movie telegraphs for the entirety of the film. The star of the movie who got lead bill on the posters is a supporting character instead, and that fact should tell you everything you should know about the movie you might be partaking in.

Overall, “Collateral Beauty” has no collateral or beauty with my investment in this heartless anti-seasonal manipulation. It’s a reminder to Smith that he must carefully choose his next project because it is the Winter season that is ruining his career, between this “Concussion” and “A Winter’s Tale”. Frankel and screenwriter Allen Loeb pull the wool over the eyes of the audience one too many times, and settle for pretentious pandering instead of uplifting heart. I felt the time, wished for death, and reserved my love for something better.

3/10