We’ve all heard of collateral damage–unintended bad consequences of actions meant for another purpose. Stories of collateral damage spill over with pain, questions, anger and “How could this happen?”
But stories of collateral beauty? Of something wonderful coming from tragedy? One would not think so, but that’s the premise of the movie by the same name, Collateral Beauty, directed by David Frankel and starring such big names as Will Smith, Keira Knightley, Kate Winslet and Helen Mirren.
It’s due for release December 16, 2016. The particular preview I attended had on the invitation list only people from the press.  Most have seen lots of movies.
Everyone cried. This is a warning: take a handkerchief. Or two.
Essentially, the movie is a modern remake of Dickens, “A Christmas Carol.” Instead of ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, we have the ghosts of love, time and death. As in Dickens’ work, the central character is an emotionally damaged man, played to perfection here by Will Smith.
Smith is the owner/operator of a successful advertising agency. When the emotional blow hits, the death of his six-year-old daughter from an incurable brain tumor, Smith retreats from life.
Two years later, he spends his days at the ad agency, speaking with no one and endlessly building room-size intricate and colorful domino structures. When each is done, Smith destroys them with the flick of one domino.
In the meantime, he is also unwittingly destroying his agency. His long-time partners, played by Edward Norten, Kate Winslet and Michael Peña, are going down the tubes with him. They carry their own stories, stories of personal pain, scary circumstances, broken relationships, lost dreams, sadness, and terminal illness.
Desperate to at least keep their financial lives afloat, they plan an intervention . . . and for the rest of this engaging, compelling, love and life-affirming story, well . . . go see the movie. Yes, you will enter a world of pain. You will also see that the beauty of renewed hope can and does break through that much pain.
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