Worth your time, comes off with lots of love, a film to watch before death. Powerful. Say's a lot. Makes you think. I didn't expected the ending. Beautiful. Great performance from all. Strong film. A story that I'm sure will make you shed a tear or two. It it felt like a xmas carol with a twist.

Wow. The reviews of this are ridiculous. I'm so tired of the armchair "critics" out there today, and the nonsense they whine about. Sure, there's nothing all that noteworthy here, but it's a pretty good weepy with some good performances. If you're in that kind of mood or dig these actors give it a go.

Let me just take you through the absolute shitshow that is Collateral Beauty. There is no simple way to describe the plot, since it is one of the most contrived, poorly thought-out ideas in cinema history. Will Smith plays the charming, inspirational head of a New York advertising firm. This lasts about five minutes until we fast forward a few years to find Smith’s character a husk of his former self following the death of his daughter. As part of his grieving process he writes letters to the abstract concepts of time, love and death. His depression causes concern at a board level in the company, and his colleagues (Kate Winslet, Edward Norton, Michael Peña) attempt to set up a sale. However, Smith doesn’t want to sell his shares. So, his colleagues and, I should add, best friends, hire actors to pretend like they actually got the letters he wrote. They want to trick him into thinking he is talking to time, love and death then they hire a PI to record him talking like an insane person; all in order to force the sale of the company. The film-makers seem to think this is cute and fun but ignore the fact that it’s FUCKING MENTAL. Frankel tries to play what is a sick, twisted plot worthy of a psychological thriller off as a romantic Christmas comedy. It’s weird, tone deaf, risible nonsense. benoliver999.com/film/2017/04/21/collateralbeauty/

I saw the trailer and was intrigued. [spoiler] I was expecting before watching it that it was gonna actually be *Death*, *Time* and *Love* coming to Howard, and I was a bit sad when I saw that they were just actors. But how thrilled was I towards the end, that plot twist I just couldn't have seen coming! [/spoiler] [spoiler] I was going along with them just being actors, and then at the end, we see *Death* herself at the hospital with Madeline (as we learn at the end, she is Howards wife and the mother of his dead daughter). Revelation! And when Howard and Madeline turn around at the end, we see that Howard is the only one who sees the three. Then we have to remember what *Death* said about the rules: "*We have the power to be seen by whomever we want, whenever we want*". Madeline needed to see *Death* at the hospital that day, but she didn't need to see her again or the other two. Howard still saw them all, however at the end when the camera turns we see that they're gone. Maybe Howard doesn't need them anymore... or might it be us, the viewers, who can't see them anymore? We've gained what we can gain from watching the movie and now they're not visible to us? I might take it a bit far, but my first time watching this was just amazing! [/spoiler] [spoiler] A little sidenote, when thinking about why the "actors" wanted to money, or didn't want it. First of all yeah, they might have done it so to play the role of the starving actors, but not just that. We can use our resources, money, to save time, to get more time - we spend money so we don't have to wait. With death I'm not 100 % sure, but my take on it is that we fear death so we spend money to avoid it. In a straight forward way by paying for vaccines, medications, psychologists. But also think back to when people would pay to get a "ticket to heaven", we are scared and think money is the solution. And then there's love, and she didn't originally want to do this, but when she hears that she can help someone, she's in it. She's only in it when it's about the love. Most people will probably say that you can buy a lot in this world, but you can't buy real love. Don't you just *love* that. [/spoiler] I honestly am gonna watch this again in the near future with someone I care for, cause it made a huge impact on me and I'm sure it could on other people in my life as well. Will Smith, or well all of the actors, I really thought they did a great job. Recommending!

Great acting talent, interesting premise skillfully executed (things are not as they seem), ethereal soundtrack, thoughtful reflection on the big issues of life. Impeccable American accents by the Brits. Naomi Harris won a Hollywood Breakthrough Award for her performance, and if you compare this to her role in Moonlight or Spectre, you appreciate the chameleon talent she is - I expect we will see much more of her. Every actor deserves mention for their fine work in this. I give this movie an 8 (great) out of 10.