Collateral Beauty

"Collateral Beauty" is the perfect movie for people who are grieving over recent bereavements and who will be able to readily relate to the anguish that Howard (Will Smith) is struggling with on a daily basis. The film begins two years after Howard's 6-year-old daughter -- his only child -- died as a result of a rare brain disorder.

The death results in Howard divorcing his wife and turns him from being the inspirational leader of a successful New York advertising agency, in which he is majority partner, into a sullen and morose figure who has given up on everything.

The other three partners in the business -- Whit (Edward Norton), Claire (Kate Winslet) and Simon (Michael Pe�a) -- are seriously worried about his well-being, which now is having such an adverse effect on their agency that they need to accept a buyout to avoid having to close down completely. As they have all been shut out of Howard's life and have no idea how he spends his days and nights, they hire a private investigator (Ann Dowd) to provide them with some clues.

The PI reports back that he leaves his apartment on the rare occasions, Howard posts some letters, on which she naturally has managed to get her hands. The letters, however, are not addressed to anyone in particular; rather, they are directed toward states of being, such as time, love and death. The letters are full of bitterness and resentment and are obviously an outlet for Howard's anger, which he has refused to share with the other partners, or anyone else.

Whit hits upon the far-fetched idea of hiring three actors to represent "Time," "Love," and "Death." (These actors are played by Jacob Latimore, Keira Knightly and Helen Mirren, respectively.) The actors' job: Answer the letters in person, to help Howard move forward or at least provide them with enough evidence to have him declared incompetent so they can go ahead and accept the takeover offer.

The other key player in the story is Madeline (Naomie Harris), who runs a support group for bereaved parents. Howard deliberates for some weeks before he joins one of the group's weekly meetings, and when he does, he is still unable to open up and talk about his loss. It takes a great deal of gentle prodding by Madeline over the next few weeks for Howard to even mention the name of his daughter.

Meanwhile, the interventions by "Death," "Time," and "Love" seem to be having some effect; Howard is at least using the encounters to vent his anger, which is conveniently filmed by the detective whose videos are then doctored to make it look like Howard is ranting to himself like a madman.

It comes as no surprise to discover, in this very contrived tale, that the three partners are also helped with their own personal problems by the three actors. "Time" deals with Claire's concern that her biological clock is ticking away too fast, and she will miss out on the possibility of having a baby before it is too late; divorced Whit is now being rejected by his 8-year-old daughter, who doesn't want to spend any time with him, so "Love" helps him find the resolve to win her back; and finally, "Death," sensing that Simon is struggling with a fatal disease, leads him to making peace with his family before it is too late.

"Collateral Beauty" is one of those highly emotional films that, in theory, provides a big, meaty role full of angst that both actors and awards givers love -- except, in this case, Smith's performance is too uneven to be convincing, and it certainly is not helped by Allan Loeb's script, which, in the last few scenes of the film, makes Howard do an unconvincing 360 degree turn. The superb A-List cast has two Oscars and 16 Oscar nominations between them, but they don't fare much better with the unbelievable plot or an implausibly happy ending.

That said, "Collateral Beauty" is by no means a bad film; in fact, for the most part, it is vastly entertaining, and it has some real high points such as the presence of Brit actor Naomie Harris, who is obviously destined for major stardom. Still, it could and should have been better, and will disappoint audiences -- as well as Mr. Smith, since it will not get him the nominations or awards that he was so obviously banking on.

Sometimes the story behind the making of the movie is more interesting than the product at hand. In this case, the backstory provides some insight into the film's falling short. Hugh Jackman was originally attached to play Howard, and the film was to be directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, who made "Me, Earl & The Dying Girl." When changes were made, and Jackman was no longer available, Smith came on board and brought along his own production company. Gomez-Rejon then left over "creative differences," and was replaced with the unlikely choice of David Frankel, who has made his name directing comedies such as "Me and Marley" and "The Devil Wears Prada."