Collateral Beauty: Decent, Overlooked Take on A Christmas Carol

COLLATERAL BEAUTY (2017)

Directed by David Frankel

Warner Brothers, 97 minutes, PG-13

★★★

Collateral Beauty doesn’t rank high on the originality scale, but it’s a surprisingly goes-down-easy film for its tragic subject matter: losing a child. It came out at the very end of 2016 and garnered middling reviews. Many moviegoers expressed disappointment that its star, Will Smith, spends much of the film in wordless depression rather than dominating the screen as he usually does. There are reasons to overrule their judgment.

Collateral Beauty is essentially a remake of A Christmas Carol. We open to a somewhat improbable scene of Howard Inlet (Smith) stoking a large gathering as if he was the CEO of Apple at a rollout talk. He’s actually a cofounder, leader, and majority stockholder of a hip advertising company that seems to employ more people than Google. In his pep talk, Howard pontificates about the three most important concepts in both business and life: love, time, and death.

Move the clock forward three years and the firm is perched on the brink of insolvency. Howard is divorced, clinically depressed, and Zen-like in his solitude–all the aftermath of his young daughter’s tragic death. He no longer courts clients or develops new strategies; when he shows up in the office at all, he builds elaborate domino-like structures that he knocks down and builds anew. His partners–Simon (Michael Pena), Claire (Kate Winslet), and Howard’s best friend Whit (Ed Norton)–need cash to save what’s left of the firm and its employees, but they can’t go forward with a sale of the company without Howard’s approval. Howard isn’t talking, not even to Whit. The only outward sign of life of any sort is that Howard considers sitting in on grief counseling sessions led by a woman named Madeline (Naomie Harris). Mostly he stands outside of the session and stares vacantly.

Whit stumbles upon an idea when he impulsively trails a woman to whom he is attracted into a theatre where she is rehearsing a play. Okay, that’s kind of creepy, especially these days, but he begins to court the mostly uninterested Amy (Keira Knightley) and learns that the play she’s working on won’t see the light of day without an infusion of cash. What if, somehow, two birds could be knocked down with one stone? Whit convinces Claire and Simon to take part in an outwardly outrageous plan. He hires Amy and two fellow actors, Raffi (Jacob Latimore) and Brigitte (Helen Mirren) to accost Howard while in the ghostly roles of Love, Time, and Death.

There are various layers and subplots to all of this and a final resolution that will strike some as contrived and others are unanticipated. I underscore my remark that this is Dickens re-imagined and transplanted to Midtown Manhattan. In other words, we’re not talking realism–documentary, dramatic, magical, or otherwise. You simply have to buy into the setup, or steer clear. Nor will I pretend that this is any sort of innovative retelling of Dickens. Collateral Beauty is certainly open to criticism for being an adaptation that doesn’t quite gel–one that’s neither drama nor comedy, though it has elements of each.

It might have collapsed altogether without subtle but strong performances from Smith, Scott, and Harris; a charming one from Latimore; and a superior turn from Ms. Mirren, who is the sort of actress that would be brilliant simply walking across the street. It’s not one of Norton’s finer hours; he’s competent, but seems to be waltzing through his performance rather than stretching himself. Knightley–who sometimes seems to be doing a bad Tina Fey imitation– isn’t very convincing as Love, but she at least looks the part. (I’m beginning to think there’s about as much talent in her as there is flesh upon her frame.)

For all of the film’s shortcomings, it has a rough charm that manages to take us beyond Howard’s despair and provide a modicum of uplift. Collateral Beauty–the title’s meaning will be revealed–isn’t likely to make anyone’s hidden masterpieces list, but it’s certainly worthy of making one of overlooked movies. There are far worse ways to spend an hour and a half, and let’s give Will Smith some love for playing against type and expectation.

Rob Weir