Released Dec. 16, 2016, Collateral Beauty is a film touching on three of the most important concepts which make up life itself: Time, Death and Love.
Beginning the film, Howard (Will Smith) writes three letters, after experiencing tragedy, to Time, Death and Love. He proceeds to send out these letters and later receives replies from the three things in the form of human actors. Responding to and interacting with these, he begins to understand that there might be something he missed while grieving — there might be something more; something beautiful.
The idea presented within this film is so important to understand and grasp in the realization that grief is real, death is real, but that does not mean that the world ends when something upsetting happens.
Howard speaks briefly to each of the things, Death, Time and Love, and while doing so is shown that most importantly, love is not something that dies; love cannot be taken away or destroyed or moved even temporarily. Love is never-ending and is in the good times as well as the bad. Love is within you for as long as you are living; there is something to be said about how strong and real and powerful love truly is, and this film did a great job of capturing it.
Additionally, Howard learns that time is always slipping away, but it is also continually giving. He misunderstood time in that he thought it was the cause for death — the thing that gave way for tragedy. Eventually, though, he is shown that time is actually the thing that makes life so beautiful; there are so many possibilities and opportunities to become and to grow and to create memories because of it. Without time, nothing would be. With it, we have everything. We have the ability to prolong life — to use the time we have been given to see something wonderful take place. Time is not against us, but continually with us. Howard is also visited by death; death is an older woman, and she is lovely.
Death is not to be feared but to be viewed as a natural part of life, but this is not something that Howard can accept.
There are so many miscommunications as to what love truly is; what its sole purpose is and why it is the greatest thing within life. Love never fails. Love is in all and is not based off of circumstances or whether or not an individual is “happy.” It goes beyond all of that, and there is always beauty within death, because there is love.
This film creates a truly unfortunate, yet completely real depiction of what it looks like for many human beings to grieve their loses, but it gives something real and true to hold onto even in those trying, upsetting, heart-breaking moments within life. Hold onto love, and collateral beauty can and will be found anywhere and in everything.
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