Collateral Beauty

“Collateral Beauty” isn’t nearly as superficial as it could’ve easily been, but it’s also largely forgettable. Bearing the marks of a manufactured Hollywood product, in a time when real feeling both inside and outside the multiplex is being widely shared, it makes this overwrought drama ring extra hollow.

2958d ago

Oh 2016, you trickster, you weren’t done with us yet. Will Smith, Helen Mirren, Michael Peña, Edward Norton, Naomie Harris, Kate Winslet, Keira Knightley, Jacob Latimore, and a partridge in a pear tree star in what is hopefully the year’s last white-elephant gift—a woefully sincere, deeply silly movie about nothing more or less than Love, Time, and Death.

2958d ago

Oh 2016, you trickster, you weren’t done with us yet. Will Smith, Helen Mirren, Michael Peña, Edward Norton, Naomie Harris, Kate Winslet, Keira Knightley, Jacob Latimore, and a partridge in a pear tree star in what is hopefully the year’s last white-elephant gift—a woefully sincere, deeply silly movie about nothing more or less than Love, Time, and Death.

2958d ago

Oh 2016, you trickster, you weren’t done with us yet. Will Smith, Helen Mirren, Michael Peña, Edward Norton, Naomie Harris, Kate Winslet, Keira Knightley, Jacob Latimore, and a partridge in a pear tree star in what is hopefully the year’s last white-elephant gift—a woefully sincere, deeply silly movie about nothing more or less than Love, Time, and Death.

2958d ago

Oh 2016, you trickster, you weren’t done with us yet. Will Smith, Helen Mirren, Michael Peña, Edward Norton, Naomie Harris, Kate Winslet, Keira Knightley, Jacob Latimore, and a partridge in a pear tree star in what is hopefully the year’s last white-elephant gift—a woefully sincere, deeply silly movie about nothing more or less than Love, Time, and Death.

2958d ago

Director David Frankel (Marley & Me, Hope Springs) films it all with a glossy sheen, as though it were a sunny rom-com rather than a rumination on grief. What were he, Loeb, and everyone else thinking when they embarked on this project? What would the good version of this premise looked like? These are the questions I will ask in my sternly worded letter to Cinema.

2958d ago

Will Smith goes glum for the twisty treacle of Collateral Beauty.

2958d ago

Will Smith plays a grieving father whose business associates plot to break through his pain in David Frankel's drama, also starring Edward Norton, Kate Winslet, Helen Mirren and Keira Knightley.

2958d ago

Will Smith plays a grieving father whose business associates plot to break through his pain in David Frankel's drama, also starring Edward Norton, Kate Winslet, Helen Mirren and Keira Knightley.

2958d ago

Will Smith goes glum for the twisty treacle of Collateral Beauty.

2958d ago

The movie manages to be simultaneously superficial and heartbreaking. That’s no easy feat — nor is it a laudable one.

2958d ago

The movie manages to be simultaneously superficial and heartbreaking. That’s no easy feat — nor is it a laudable one.

2958d ago

The movie manages to be simultaneously superficial and heartbreaking. That’s no easy feat — nor is it a laudable one.

2958d ago

Director David Frankel (Marley & Me, Hope Springs) films it all with a glossy sheen, as though it were a sunny rom-com rather than a rumination on grief. What were he, Loeb, and everyone else thinking when they embarked on this project? What would the good version of this premise looked like? These are the questions I will ask in my sternly worded letter to Cinema.

2958d ago

Will Smith goes glum for the twisty treacle of Collateral Beauty.

2958d ago

Director David Frankel (Marley & Me, Hope Springs) films it all with a glossy sheen, as though it were a sunny rom-com rather than a rumination on grief. What were he, Loeb, and everyone else thinking when they embarked on this project? What would the good version of this premise looked like? These are the questions I will ask in my sternly worded letter to Cinema.

2958d ago

Will Smith plays a grieving father whose business associates plot to break through his pain in David Frankel's drama, also starring Edward Norton, Kate Winslet, Helen Mirren and Keira Knightley.

2958d ago

Will Smith plays a grieving father whose business associates plot to break through his pain in David Frankel's drama, also starring Edward Norton, Kate Winslet, Helen Mirren and Keira Knightley.

2958d ago

Will Smith goes glum for the twisty treacle of Collateral Beauty.

2958d ago

The movie manages to be simultaneously superficial and heartbreaking. That’s no easy feat — nor is it a laudable one.

2958d ago

Director David Frankel (Marley & Me, Hope Springs) films it all with a glossy sheen, as though it were a sunny rom-com rather than a rumination on grief. What were he, Loeb, and everyone else thinking when they embarked on this project? What would the good version of this premise looked like? These are the questions I will ask in my sternly worded letter to Cinema.

2958d ago

Still mourning his daughter three years after her death, ad exec Howard (Smith) pens letters to Love, Death and Time, concepts that define his work life. Intercepting the mail, his colleagues (Norton, Winslet, Peña) hire actors to embody the three abstracts to shake their boss from his stupor.

2958d ago

Still mourning his daughter three years after her death, ad exec Howard (Smith) pens letters to Love, Death and Time, concepts that define his work life. Intercepting the mail, his colleagues (Norton, Winslet, Peña) hire actors to embody the three abstracts to shake their boss from his stupor.

2958d ago

Still mourning his daughter three years after her death, ad exec Howard (Smith) pens letters to Love, Death and Time, concepts that define his work life. Intercepting the mail, his colleagues (Norton, Winslet, Peña) hire actors to embody the three abstracts to shake their boss from his stupor.

2958d ago

Collateral Beauty is a Hallmark tear-jerker in the worst way, so out of tune with human emotion that it almost becomes satire.

2958d ago

Still mourning his daughter three years after her death, ad exec Howard (Smith) pens letters to Love, Death and Time, concepts that define his work life. Intercepting the mail, his colleagues (Norton, Winslet, Peña) hire actors to embody the three abstracts to shake their boss from his stupor.

2958d ago

Collateral Beauty is a Hallmark tear-jerker in the worst way, so out of tune with human emotion that it almost becomes satire.

2958d ago

Collateral Beauty is a Hallmark tear-jerker in the worst way, so out of tune with human emotion that it almost becomes satire.

2958d ago

Collateral Beauty is a Hallmark tear-jerker in the worst way, so out of tune with human emotion that it almost becomes satire.

2958d ago

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A man is visited by three mysterious figures at Christmastime to learn a few lessons and put his life back on track.

2958d ago

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A man is visited by three mysterious figures at Christmastime to learn a few lessons and put his life back on track.

2958d ago

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A man is visited by three mysterious figures at Christmastime to learn a few lessons and put his life back on track.

2958d ago

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A man is visited by three mysterious figures at Christmastime to learn a few lessons and put his life back on track.

2958d ago

Grief is a prevalent theme at the movies right now. Such diverse titles as “Manchester by the Sea,” “Jackie” and “Arrival” come at the difficult topic from wildly different angles—personal, political and otherworldly. But they all manage to justify their use of dead loved ones as a generator of not just emotion, but of understanding about what happens in the aftermath of such great loss.

2958d ago

Grief is a prevalent theme at the movies right now. Such diverse titles as “Manchester by the Sea,” “Jackie” and “Arrival” come at the difficult topic from wildly different angles—personal, political and otherworldly. But they all manage to justify their use of dead loved ones as a generator of not just emotion, but of understanding about what happens in the aftermath of such great loss.

2958d ago

Grief is a prevalent theme at the movies right now. Such diverse titles as “Manchester by the Sea,” “Jackie” and “Arrival” come at the difficult topic from wildly different angles—personal, political and otherworldly. But they all manage to justify their use of dead loved ones as a generator of not just emotion, but of understanding about what happens in the aftermath of such great loss.

2958d ago

Grief is a prevalent theme at the movies right now. Such diverse titles as “Manchester by the Sea,” “Jackie” and “Arrival” come at the difficult topic from wildly different angles—personal, political and otherworldly. But they all manage to justify their use of dead loved ones as a generator of not just emotion, but of understanding about what happens in the aftermath of such great loss.

2958d ago

Will Smith’s charismatic presence as an actor is completely hemmed in by the anhedonic character he plays, and watching the great Helen Mirren putting a daffy spin on Death is downright depressing. Collateral Beauty is ultimately as mushy a movie as the phrase itself, whose definition is never fully explained by the script. It’s another example of something sounding good but meaning little.

2958d ago

Will Smith’s charismatic presence as an actor is completely hemmed in by the anhedonic character he plays, and watching the great Helen Mirren putting a daffy spin on Death is downright depressing. Collateral Beauty is ultimately as mushy a movie as the phrase itself, whose definition is never fully explained by the script. It’s another example of something sounding good but meaning little.

2958d ago

Will Smith’s charismatic presence as an actor is completely hemmed in by the anhedonic character he plays, and watching the great Helen Mirren putting a daffy spin on Death is downright depressing. Collateral Beauty is ultimately as mushy a movie as the phrase itself, whose definition is never fully explained by the script. It’s another example of something sounding good but meaning little.

2958d ago

Will Smith’s charismatic presence as an actor is completely hemmed in by the anhedonic character he plays, and watching the great Helen Mirren putting a daffy spin on Death is downright depressing. Collateral Beauty is ultimately as mushy a movie as the phrase itself, whose definition is never fully explained by the script. It’s another example of something sounding good but meaning little.

2958d ago

Collateral Beauty is much more shallow nonsense than anything else.

2958d ago

Collateral Beauty is much more shallow nonsense than anything else.

2958d ago

The Will Smith weepie “Collateral Beauty” couldn’t be more calculated and manipulative if it slapped you on the back, shoved a giant lollipop into your mouth and immediately tried to sell you a time share in Tampa.

2958d ago

Collateral Beauty is much more shallow nonsense than anything else.

2958d ago

The Will Smith weepie “Collateral Beauty” couldn’t be more calculated and manipulative if it slapped you on the back, shoved a giant lollipop into your mouth and immediately tried to sell you a time share in Tampa.

2958d ago

Collateral Beauty is much more shallow nonsense than anything else.

2958d ago

The Will Smith weepie “Collateral Beauty” couldn’t be more calculated and manipulative if it slapped you on the back, shoved a giant lollipop into your mouth and immediately tried to sell you a time share in Tampa.

2958d ago

The Will Smith weepie “Collateral Beauty” couldn’t be more calculated and manipulative if it slapped you on the back, shoved a giant lollipop into your mouth and immediately tried to sell you a time share in Tampa.

2958d ago

Will Smith's turkey feast is like A Christmas Carol retold by David Icke.

2958d ago

Will Smith stars in this horrifyingly cutesy Will Smith film in which bereavement is offset by soft-focus platitudes about wonder and compassion.

2958d ago

Will Smith stars in this horrifyingly cutesy Will Smith film in which bereavement is offset by soft-focus platitudes about wonder and compassion.

2958d ago

Talented actors are reduced to quivering lips and puddles of tears in a hokey tale of loss and interconnectedness.

2958d ago

Will Smith's turkey feast is like A Christmas Carol retold by David Icke.

2958d ago

Will Smith stars in this horrifyingly cutesy Will Smith film in which bereavement is offset by soft-focus platitudes about wonder and compassion.

2958d ago

Will Smith's turkey feast is like A Christmas Carol retold by David Icke.

2958d ago

Will Smith's turkey feast is like A Christmas Carol retold by David Icke.

2958d ago

Talented actors are reduced to quivering lips and puddles of tears in a hokey tale of loss and interconnectedness.

2958d ago

Will Smith stars in this horrifyingly cutesy Will Smith film in which bereavement is offset by soft-focus platitudes about wonder and compassion.

2958d ago

Talented actors are reduced to quivering lips and puddles of tears in a hokey tale of loss and interconnectedness.

2958d ago

Talented actors are reduced to quivering lips and puddles of tears in a hokey tale of loss and interconnectedness.

2958d ago

David Frankel's film argues that the power of miracles can be manufactured by those who can fund them.

2958d ago

David Frankel's film argues that the power of miracles can be manufactured by those who can fund them.

2958d ago

David Frankel's film argues that the power of miracles can be manufactured by those who can fund them.

2958d ago

David Frankel's film argues that the power of miracles can be manufactured by those who can fund them.

2958d ago

Maybe you'll be at a dinner. Maybe nobody will believe you. Or maybe they will, and someone will say, "Hollywood is terrible at making movies about trauma."

2958d ago

Many of the words that I would like to use to describe this waste of talent and time...can’t be lobbed in a family publication. So, instead, I will just start by throwing out some permissible insults: artificial, clichéd, mawkish, preposterous, incompetent, sexist, laughable, insulting.

2958d ago

Many of the words that I would like to use to describe this waste of talent and time...can’t be lobbed in a family publication. So, instead, I will just start by throwing out some permissible insults: artificial, clichéd, mawkish, preposterous, incompetent, sexist, laughable, insulting.

2958d ago

Will Smith heads up an A-list cast in the soggiest, sappiest, most painfully sentimental Christmas movie in ages.

2958d ago

Maybe you'll be at a dinner. Maybe nobody will believe you. Or maybe they will, and someone will say, "Hollywood is terrible at making movies about trauma."

2958d ago

Many of the words that I would like to use to describe this waste of talent and time...can’t be lobbed in a family publication. So, instead, I will just start by throwing out some permissible insults: artificial, clichéd, mawkish, preposterous, incompetent, sexist, laughable, insulting.

2958d ago

Maybe you'll be at a dinner. Maybe nobody will believe you. Or maybe they will, and someone will say, "Hollywood is terrible at making movies about trauma."

2958d ago

Many of the words that I would like to use to describe this waste of talent and time...can’t be lobbed in a family publication. So, instead, I will just start by throwing out some permissible insults: artificial, clichéd, mawkish, preposterous, incompetent, sexist, laughable, insulting.

2958d ago

Every so often there comes a movie so tasteless, so nakedly pandering, so bodaciously ill conceived that you’ve got to see it to believe it.

2958d ago

Will Smith heads up an A-list cast in the soggiest, sappiest, most painfully sentimental Christmas movie in ages.

2958d ago

Every so often there comes a movie so tasteless, so nakedly pandering, so bodaciously ill conceived that you’ve got to see it to believe it.

2958d ago

Will Smith heads up an A-list cast in the soggiest, sappiest, most painfully sentimental Christmas movie in ages.

2958d ago

Every so often there comes a movie so tasteless, so nakedly pandering, so bodaciously ill conceived that you’ve got to see it to believe it.

2958d ago

Maybe you'll be at a dinner. Maybe nobody will believe you. Or maybe they will, and someone will say, "Hollywood is terrible at making movies about trauma."

2958d ago

Every so often there comes a movie so tasteless, so nakedly pandering, so bodaciously ill conceived that you’ve got to see it to believe it.

2958d ago

Will Smith heads up an A-list cast in the soggiest, sappiest, most painfully sentimental Christmas movie in ages.

2958d ago