'Collateral Beauty' Review: Forgive the great cast for they knew not what they did

Film: Collateral Beauty
Dir: David Frankel
Cast: Will Smith, Edward Norton, Helen Mirren, Michael Peña, Keira Knightley, Kate Winslet, Jacob LatimoreBryan Durham

What's it about:
Howard (Smith) has been grieving for two years -- he lost his six-year-old daughter to cancer -- and he barely finds time to do anything else, but create domino stacks and write letters to Love, Time and Death. Well, that doesn't bode well if you're the main man at an ad agency. You need to be the talker, but when you grieve, the words don't come, right? Well, his associates Whit (Norton), Claire (Winslet) and Simon (Peña) can't wait and seek to 'gaslight' him out, with a plan that makes you wonder: with friends like this, who needs enemies?

What's hot:
The director David Frankel is known for at least one tearjerker (Marley & Me) and the writer Allan Loeb (Rock Of Ages, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps) is no slouch either. 
The casting. Somebody thought it was a good idea to go Oscar-baiting with this one. Mirren and Winslet are Oscar winners. Everyone mentioned above except Peña and Latimore is an Oscar nominee.

What's not:
The premise. The climax. The ending. The boring parts featuring Will Smith. The idea that something so vile could be made into a holiday movie and marketed as a sappy, sentimental flick on days you're ODing on tissues and icecream buckets. Naomie Harris totally wasted in a part that should have given her more screen time. Will Smith isn't the force of nature he used to be in earlier films. Something is sorely lacking. Charisma, maybe?

What to do: 
Avoid it like sin. This is not the kind of tripe you ought to subject yourself to. Great cast notwithstanding. Forgive them for they knew not what they did.

Rating: *