Will Smith's 'Collateral Beauty' is getting terrible reviews
Will Smith's newest movie, Collateral Beauty, looks like a head scratcher. The star-studded movie that hits theaters tomorrow is about Howard, a man grieving over the death of his daugher, who is "visited" by Love (Keira Knightly), Death (Helen Mirren), and Time (Jacob Lattimore) in order to help him heal. Rounding out the cast are Edward Norton, Kate Winslet, and Michael Peña, as Howard's colleagues, who may have a hand in these mysterious appearances.
The reviews are in and they are not good. The Toronto Star called it "the year's worst movie."
Smith had a good August with Suicide Squad. It wasn't a hit with critics, but found a massive audience over the summer. But it doesn't look like that good will will be repeated this weekend.
Here's a sampling of some reviews:
Seattle Times' Moira McDonald:
...it falls to me to tell you that Collateral Beauty, a movie so earnest it almost has Tom Cruise in it, misses its mark by a mile, stranding an impressive cast who you'd think would have better things to do.
Every 10 minutes or so, there seems to be a fresh reason to head for the exit: a character's violent coughing fit followed by an ominously abrupt cutaway. Kate Winslet wasted in a role you expect to see listed in the credits as "Emotionally Unfulfilled Career Woman." A child so brattily entitled and badly written, you almost wish she would switch places with Howard's daughter in the Great Beyond. Sorry, that's a horrible thing to say. Almost as horrible as "You're dead tissue that won't decompose," which is what Howard, nearly catatonic with grief, writes in a letter that he addresses, simply, to "Time."
Rolling Stones' Peter Travers:
It's near impossible to make a movie with no redeeming features – but damned if Collateral Beauty doesn't hits the zero-stars jackpot. The unholy mess that director David Frankel and screenwriter Allan Loeb have unleashed for the holidays strands an all-star cast – including Will Smith, Kate Winslet, Helen Mirren, Edward Norton, and Keira Knightley – on a sinking ship that churns the waters from absurd to zombified with frequent stops at pretentious. Our condolences to Smith, who has the most screen time and is therefore open to the most ridicule.
The New York Times' Manohla Dargis:
For movies that we hated in 2016, check out Steven Rea's worst of the year. Or, perhaps you'd like to cleanse your palate with some excellent films? Then it's time to read Steven Rea's favorites of 2016.