Collateral Beauty 2017

     Howard is in a partnership with Whit in their New York advertising agency.  Howard suffers a terrible tragedy when his six-year-old daughter dies from a rare disease.  Everyone at the agency tries to reconnect with him.  The agency has a buy out offer but Howard won’t consider this or anything else.  Everyone is worried about money and their jobs.  Howard seeks answers from the universe by writing letters to Love, Time and Death.  His friends hire a private investigator to find out what Howard has been doing and this is what she reports back.  The letters begin to bring responses. 

     I could not relate to this film or the characters.  The cast is filled with fine actors but they can’t pull a rabbit out of this hat.  It just seems there is no substance in any of the scenes.  The topics are important and concern Love, Time and Death.  2* (I didn’t like this movie)     

97 min, Drama directed by David Frankel with Will Smith, Edward Norton, Kate Winslet, Michael Pena, Helen Mirren, Naomie Harris, Keira Knightley, Jacob 

Latimore, Ann Dowd, Lisa Colon-Zayas, Natalie Gold, Kylie Rogers, Ben Snyder.

Note:  Imdb 6.8 out of 10, 13* critic 64% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 1 ½*, Amazon 4.4* out of 5* with 488 reviews, Metacritic 23 out of 100 from 40 critics 6.1 out of 10 with 118 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Queens, Manhattan and New York City, New York.  Will Smith's father Willard Carroll Smith, Sr. was dying when Will was researching his role.  He said the film helped him navigate this tragedy in his own life.  Originally Hugh Jackman was to be in the role of Howard.  Rachel McAdams and Rooney Mara were offered roles.  The ad agency scenes were filmed at the real Wieden Kennedy Agency in New York.