Collateral Beauty

Written by: Allan Loeb

Directed by David Frankel

Starring: Will Smith, Edward Norton, Kate Winslet, and Helen Mirren

“Collateral Beauty,” blends a little bit of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” with Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life,” to give us this new film about love, loss, and what’s important in life. Howard (Will Smith) is a charismatic and extremely successful entrepreneur with a heart of gold until he loses his young daughter.  This devastating event plummets him into an emotional hell, leaving his business and partners in financial shambles.  In an effort to help Howard and the business, his partners hire actors to respond to his letters to the Universe including Love, Death, and Time—the concepts he feels are responsible for taking the most precious gift from him.

WATCH THE TRAILER

We meet Howard before his 6 year old dies.  He’s upbeat and charming, an amazingly gracious and giving leader of his ever-growing company.  The story quickly jumps to the current day as we see a withdrawn, depressed, and unresponsive man who has physically aged much more than 2 years and now just going through the motions in life.  His business partners, Whit (Edward Norton), Claire (Kate Winslet), and Simon (Michael Pena), hatch a plan to employee three out-of-work actors as the characters to whom Howard is writing.  Brigitte aka “Death” (Helen Mirren), Amy aka “Love” (Keira Knightley), and Raffi aka “Time” (Jacob Latimore) visit Howard to either wake him up or document his crazy behavior in time to save the company.

“Collateral Beauty” is an emotionally touching film as we embark upon not only Howard’s journey of loss and healing, but  each of the partners’ troubled lives as well.   It’s a reminder that we are all connected and that no one truly knows our inner-struggles unless we are willing to look.  We all have a story and it’s ok to need a helping hand every once in a while.  While it is a rather predictable story, there are a couple of surprise twists that may just warm your heart and put a smile on your face.  

Smith, although the lead, has comparatively fewer lines than his co-stars.  It’s his mere presence and how he sleepwalks through life captivates you as you imagine his hell on Earth.  Smith brings believability to this character and creates empathy from the viewer.  While Norton, Winslet, and Pena do an adequate job, it is, unsurprisingly, Mirren that pulls life into the film, ironically as the character of “Death.”  The young Latimore also has a convincing role to play allowing us to see just a bit of the range this talented actor is capable of.  And Ann Dowd (“Compliance”) is always a pleasure to see in any film, finding a way to bring a bit of humor and personality to the small, but vital part of the unassuming investigator.

“Collateral Beauty” may not be the next Oscar contender in any category, but it is a wonderful re-creation of what the holiday season’s message should be—cherish one another as we don’t know what tomorrow will bring.  Even with a predictable and rather familiar story, you might find a few pleasant surprises along the way as well.

3 Stars

The “Star Wars” franchise continues with “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” starring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, and Ben Mendelsohn along with several more high-profile actors.  No doubt that this cash cow will continue to produce green buckets  for Lucasfilm, but does their $200M investment give them a golden story?  No.  This lackluster attempt at delivering a prequel to “Star Wars: A New Hope,” provides little information, characters with no personality except for a droid, and puts all their golden eggs into the special effects basket.

WATCH THE TRAILER

For those of you who are not avid, and I mean truly avid, Star Wars fans, you’re going to need a tutorial before you see this film.  I recommend seeing the very first Star Wars which is actually “Star Wars: Episode IV- A New Hope” from back in 1977.  It will give you the right mindset for this latest installment.  Otherwise, you’ll be asking the same questions I was, such as:  “Which space ships are the bad ones?”  “He looks familiar.  Was he in one of the other 50 “Star Wars” movies?”  “What’s the difference between the Rebellion and the Resistance or was it the Alliance?”  Trying very hard to recall “A New Hope,” I attempted to find some logic behind this prequel, but alas, there was none until the very end.  The 2 hour and 16 minute running time was not worth how they gathered up the loose ends and put a sloppy bow on top.

If you go and if you’re not a huge fan, here’s the basic premise.  Jyn Erso (Jones) witnesses the murder of her mother and the capture of her father (Mads Mikkelsen) as the family attempts to flee the Empire’s representative, the evil, heartless Krennic (Mendelsohn).  15 years pass and Jyn has been raised by the rebellious outcast Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) and she now finds herself in a situation/position to confront her father (sound familiar?), find the truth (again, sound familiar?), and save the galaxy from the possible development of the Death Star…yeah, it’s that nasty, dreaded Death Star again.  So, with lots of help from her rag-tag team of bandits and Force Fighters (you know, the guys who follow the Force), Jyn wings a plan to  thwart evil.  It’s a non-stop battle to the end.

“Rogue One” fails on the most basic level—the story.  While the beginning seems promising, the film quickly goes into a tailspin, taking us into the blackhole of story-telling.  “Rogue One” is more of a showcase of special effects and highly choreographed fight scenes than it is a set-up to one of the most popular films of

all time.  When the voice of a droid named K-2SO (Alan Tudyk) and a blind martial arts fighter, Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen) are the most animated and interesting characters in a film with a myriad number of characters, that’s a poor reflection on the writing, directing, and acting from the rest of the cast.  Riz Ahmed (Bodhi Rook) attempts to give us a bit of an entertaining character, but never seems to quite know how far to take it, dialing it in and out unexpectedly.  Even Mendelsohn’s unusual persona can’t find a way to shine in this one.   Jones’ performance is even less stellar as she flatlines her dialogue and Luna is just a non-descript sidekick.

The special effects are simply extraordinary, but you know what they say about too much of a good thing!    It becomes dull and monotonous, exactly the two descriptors for “Rogue One.” And one particular special effect is downright creepy, but I won’t spoil it for you.  However, there is a blatantly obvious good thing that as a female film reviewer, I need to point out.  The lead character and hero (or heroine) is female.  She is the leader and savior and for that I commend the writers; Chris Weitz, Tony Gilroy, John Knoll, and Gary Whitta.

“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” is sure to make fans of the epic franchise happy as they have yet another film to see.  For those of you who are not able to recite the names of the all the Imperial-occupied moons and the succession of bad guys, I’d recommend skipping this one.  But, if you need a nap and your significant other insists on going, be assured you can catch up on your zzzz’s.

1 Star out of 4