Collateral Beauty
New Line Cinema | Release Date: December 16, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
23
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
12
Negative:
26
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanDec 14, 2016
Many critics will complain about emotional manipulation, but I share Roger Ebert’s view: “Some people like to be emotionally manipulated. I do, when it’s done well.” I think “Beauty” does it well. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonDec 15, 2016
Collateral Beauty is based on a premise so preposterous that the film shouldn’t work. But the illusion of credibility is sustained just well enough to keep things from falling apart. Read full review
58
The PlaylistWill AshtonDec 14, 2016
Manipulative and over-engineered, starring high-profile actors doing all they can elicit deep compassion, Collateral Beauty fails to make an impression, and contains not nearly enough authentic beauty to make it worthwhile. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerDec 15, 2016
Scriptwriter Allan Loeb, the man behind more than one Kevin James vehicle, attempts Christmastime magic à la "Miracle on 34th Street," but ends up conjuring Maudlin on Madison Avenue instead. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 15, 2016
In the end it all seems a little too glib, too easy and not quite true. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTom RussoDec 15, 2016
Too well-meaning and too infused with genuine poignancy from Smith and Harris for the film to be dismissed as just a trigger for our snark reflex. But it’s a shame that the tears Smith sheds aren’t serving a better conceived story. Read full review
50
Washington PostStephanie MerryDec 15, 2016
The movie manages to be simultaneously superficial and heartbreaking. That’s no easy feat — nor is it a laudable one. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 13, 2016
If “Collateral” fails to move you — and it might, because I was untouched — it may have to do with the clumsy clockwork machinations of a script that has to make its entire unholy and unethical premise seem “logical” and understandable. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyDec 13, 2016
Audiences who enjoy smiling through tears, and don't mind having their buttons pushed in the most obvious ways, could probably do a lot worse. Read full review
50
VarietyOwen GleibermanDec 13, 2016
By the end of Collateral Beauty, you’d have to have a heart of stone for the film not to get to you a bit, but even if it does, you may still feel like you’ve been played. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattDec 14, 2016
These actors are too good to be entirely sunk by the sheer silliness of the material (with the exception of Smith, who seems fully committed to playing the role of a human frown-face emoji). Read full review
40
EmpireIan FreerDec 26, 2016
In a month of "A Monster Calls" and "Manchester By The Sea," Collateral Beauty serves up a hollow portrait of grief. Despite its quality cast and slick visuals, the result is sombre and saccharine rather than uplifting. Read full review
40
Time OutDave CalhounDec 21, 2016
It’s just impossible to get past the core ridiculousness and arm-twisting manipulation of the plot. Read full review
40
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoDec 15, 2016
Collateral Beauty is a Hallmark tear-jerker in the worst way, so out of tune with human emotion that it almost becomes satire. Read full review
38
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 17, 2016
Pretentious and manipulative, the movie bludgeons viewers with its new age philosophizing and its desire to be considered meaningful. Read full review
38
USA TodayBrian TruittDec 16, 2016
An unseasonably cynical assault on the holiday spirit. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaDec 15, 2016
I don’t think I've witnessed a film this year that managed to so completely and utterly collapse into crass garbage in its last few minutes while abusing what little good will it has. Read full review
38
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldDec 14, 2016
Collateral Beauty is a pretty terrible movie, but it left me with one overarching thought: My life, and surely yours, too, would be vastly improved if only Helen Mirren were perpetually lurking nearby, offering advice. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangDec 15, 2016
This movie doesn’t rise to the level of so-bad-it’s-good. But no less impressively, perhaps, it’s just bad enough that you actually wish it were worse. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenDec 14, 2016
Collateral Beauty is ultimately as mushy a movie as the phrase itself, whose definition is never fully explained by the script. It’s another example of something sounding good but meaning little. Read full review
30
Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaDec 14, 2016
This wildly distasteful premise is meant to be cute and enlightening, like a modern Frank Capra flick, but this is hardly "It's a Wonderful Life." Instead, the movie keeps tripping over itself. Read full review
30
Screen DailySarah WardDec 14, 2016
Collateral Beauty never manages to shake off its all-too-deliberate air or willingness to follow the easiest path. Its life lessons are packaged with cloying, overt mawkishness which aren’t quite the feel-good home run Frankel seems to expect. Read full review
25
The Film StageEric D. SniderDec 19, 2016
Collateral Beauty is soggy garbage intended to make you cry, but it’s so clumsy in its manipulations that you almost feel sorry for it. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle SmithDec 15, 2016
The Will Smith weepie Collateral Beauty couldn’t be more calculated and manipulative if it slapped you on the back, shoved a giant lollipop into your mouth and immediately tried to sell you a time share in Tampa. Read full review
25
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshDec 15, 2016
Collateral Beauty is much more shallow nonsense than anything else. Read full review
25
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerDec 15, 2016
It is not a bad film because of its sincerity of intention. It’s a bad film because it manages to make that sincerity feel disingenuous as it goes on, more and more so with each passing scene. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperDec 15, 2016
Collateral Beauty is a fraud. It is built on a foundation so contrived, so off-putting, so treacly, the most miraculous thing about this movie is this movie was actually made. Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyDec 14, 2016
Collateral Beauty is one of those cloying movies about learning to take the good with the bad that feels like it was made by aliens with little grasp of human life. Read full review
25
IndieWireJude DryDec 13, 2016
With the bizarre way Whit and his crew talk about numbers and money, Collateral Beauty is just another story about spoiled rich people. Read full review
20
Total FilmNeil SmithJan 11, 2017
A-list sad-faces abound in a film where absurd concept is rivalled only by banal execution. Read full review
20
The TelegraphRobbie CollinDec 15, 2016
I still can’t quite believe it exists, though I may yet find myself shouting about it on the street. Read full review
20
ScreenCrushMatt SingerDec 14, 2016
So many of the decisions by director David Frankel and writer Allan Loeb make absolutely no sense. Read full review
20
TheWrapDan CallahanDec 13, 2016
Collateral Beauty is certainly a case of outright sentimental damage, not beauty, but of course the word collateral also means money that can be bargained with, and hopefully that’s what the ill-fated cast of this picture received in some abundance. Read full review
20
The GuardianPeter BradshawDec 13, 2016
This horrifyingly yucky, toxically cutesy ensemble dramedy creates a Chernobyl atmosphere of manipulative sentimentality, topped off with an ending which M Night Shyamalan might reject as too ridiculous. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineEric HendersonDec 14, 2016
David Frankel's film argues that the power of miracles can be manufactured by those who can fund them. Read full review
0
The New York TimesManohla DargisDec 15, 2016
Many of the words that I would like to use to describe this waste of talent and time...can’t be lobbed in a family publication. So, instead, I will just start by throwing out some permissible insults: artificial, clichéd, mawkish, preposterous, incompetent, sexist, laughable, insulting. Read full review
0
TimeStephanie ZacharekDec 15, 2016
Every so often there comes a movie so tasteless, so nakedly pandering, so bodaciously ill conceived that you’ve got to see it to believe it. This year, that movie is Collateral Beauty. Read full review
0
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 15, 2016
A movie that means to be uplifting but turns out to be insufferable. Read full review
0
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 15, 2016
The unholy mess that director David Frankel and screenwriter Allan Loeb have unleashed for the holidays strands an all-star cast...on a sinking ship that churns the waters from absurd to zombified with frequent stops at pretentious. Read full review
0
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlDec 13, 2016
Maybe you'll be at a dinner. Maybe nobody will believe you. Or maybe they will, and someone will say, "Hollywood is terrible at making movies about trauma.” Read full review
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