A review of the recent film “Collateral Beauty”

I’m really not sure about this movie.

What is certain is that it is studded with stars: Will Smith (in an unusually sensitive leading performance), Edward Norton, Michael Peña, and no less than four British actresses, Helen Mirren, Kate Winslet, Keira Knightley and Naomie Harris. It deals with a terribly serious issue – the death of a young child – and it does not minimise the profound pain or offer an easy answer.

But I was not wholly convinced by the narrative device of having Smith’s character, the father of the dead girl, writing letters to Love, Time And Death, three of his co-workers engaging actors to portray these three ideas, and each of the three friends associating with one of the concepts – just a bit too contrived.

A worthy and watchable effort though.


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