Every year in America films are released around late
December so they can qualify for awards season. Many pander towards award
voters in order to grab a cherished Golden Globe or Academy award. Some
movies are more shameless than others in infusing plenty of dramatic moments to
tug on voter’s heartstrings. Such films are called ‘Oscar-bait’. ‘Collateral
Beauty’ is ‘Oscar-bait’. Overtly cynical than most, ‘Collateral Beauty’s
woeful effort in award attention-seeking makes it one of the worst in recent
memory.
Howard (Will Smith) is an advertising executive recovering
from a great tragedy. Desperate to find closure, he writes letters to
Love, Time and Death. Seeing their work colleague go off the emotional
rails are Whit (Edward Norton), Claire (Kate Winslet) and Simon (Michael
Pena). Using this to their advantage in order to gain promotions, they
hire actors to impersonate Love, Time and Death. Talking to these
spiritual impersonators, Howard’s life is given new purpose amongst the
spectral deception.
‘Collateral Beauty’ is a mean-spirited movie filled with
selfish characters. This isn’t something that would endear itself to
viewers and award deciders. Its allusions to the Frank Capra directed
classic ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ don’t help with its sprinkling of fake
sentiment making for tiresome viewing. The main point is the unbelievable
story and lack of empathy between characters. Their relationships are
poorly handled with various subplots unsatisfactorily explained.
The cast fail to convey any passion to their roles with Smith’s
dramatics emoting eliciting little sympathy. It’s difficult having
empathy for any of the characters as their actions are derived from pure
selfishness than true humanity. This leads to not caring about what
happens with the clunky direction not helping. New York’s landscape
looks pretty and distracts from the turgid events. That’s one of the few
saving graces from an un-memorably dull enterprise.
Using its glossy veneer to disguise its nasty underbelly,
‘Collateral Beauty’ is a deceptive beast. It’s a poor effort at
‘Oscar-baiting’ and one that hasn’t paid off. Next time perhaps Will
Smith should make a good movie than appearing in badly written ones which may
give him a chance at Oscar glory.
Movie Review Rating out of 10: 2
Movie Review by Patrick Moore
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Patrick Moore's Movie Review is an alternative look at movie
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