'Collateral Beauty' Movie Review & Interview Helen Mirren & Will Smith

I just saw the new movie 'Collateral Beauty.' This movie is a fine, beautiful, caring, sweet, dramatic, yet comedic at times film that I wouldn't be surprised to see get award recognition in the coming weeks. Will Smith and the entire cast, of Helen Mirren, Edward Norton, Keira Knightly, Michael Pena, Naomie Harris (who won the Hollywood Film Award, Best Breakout Performance for her role in Collateral Beauty), Jacob Latimore, and Kate Winslet play their roles to perfection and all of them bring an interesting and relatable perspective to the film's narrative.

While the ending is heartwarming, the journey to get there is deep, meaningful, rocky at times (btw, just like life) so don't expect a happy go lucky film (again, just like life).

You may be aware of the plot, and if not, Will Smith plays Howard Inlet, a grieving and troubled New York advertising executive who's forced to come to terms with a terrible tragedy. Howard begins writing letters to Love, to Time, and to Death as part of a therapeutic attempt to find meaning in the shadow of his own depression – only to find out that these perennial forces of nature are (apparently) willing to take the form of physical bodies and they speak with him directly.  Howard's friends, co-workers and colleagues, learn that he's been writing these letters to the abstract themes like death, love, and time. The last thing Howard expects is to come face to face with his cosmic pen pals, but with their help and his friends' support, maybe he can finally work through his grief.

There is no easy way to tackle death in cinema and if you are anything like Will Smith's character, you will have a difficult time dealing with the subject matter of losing someone close to you. What I can say is that Collateral Beauty is one of the better films at taking a difficult topic and making it into an enjoyable film without losing its message to cheesy clichés. The film, the cast, the gorgeous production all deliver on the promise of first rate film drama, moviegoers are in for a heart-tugging treat come Christmas.  Just a word of caution, if you've watched any of the trailers, you've likely been choked up, imagine what the whole film might do. 

See it…you'll love it!

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