Is ‘Collateral Beauty’ That Bad?

To say Collateral Beauty, Hollywood’s latest star-studded holiday-season film, isn’t a good movie is to give the film the benefit of the doubt. It’s to assume, reasonably, that the film was meant to reach depths of emotion, to inspire you to hurt deeply and love bravely despite it, wrapping those lessons in a heartfelt story and finishing with an unexpected plot-twist, the bow on top of the present.

To say Collateral Beauty isn’t a good movie is also to be kind. Indeed, it’s an awfully bad movie for anyone who has seen enough movies to recognize its uninspired clichés, lazy plot clues, and thinly-veiled emotional manipulation. Without that benefit of the doubt though, it seems clear the movie didn’t attempt very lofty goals at all; it couldn’t have actually tried and have missed so badly. Instead, Collateral Beauty seemingly aspires to be blatant grief voyeurism, the kind to which, if a film is lucky, finds a cult following from teenagers who find it beautifully deep as the rest of us do our best not to sleep, seethe, or vomit. An exception to Collateral Beauty’s mediocrity is Helen Mirren, who was comedic in half her scenes, charming in the other half, and endearing in all of them. The concept of the film is faithful to its trailer; very faithful, as there little more added than what you learned and could have predicted from a 30-second synopsis. “What is your why?” successful marketing executive Howard Inlet, played by Will Smith, asks during a company-wide meeting in the …