Colatera Collateral Beauty Essay

A rare form of glioblastoma took away Howard Inlet’s six-year old daughter. Ever since her passing, he struggled to regain his mental stability. Collateral Beauty is about how the people around Howard care about him so much to help return him to get back on track after he loses the biggest piece of his life to cancer. It is a movie intended to entertain, in a sad way. The entertainment of this movie brings along the tears; it affects the viewer because the movie covers real life situations, portrayed by different and unique characters. The movie is successful in its aim in showing the power of love, the human spirit.
To explain, glioblastomas, or GBM for short, are tumors that come from astrocytes or the cells that make the supportive tissue of the brain. These tumors are common on the brain and the spinal cord, and are very cancerous. The exact cause for glioblastomas are not known, but only three percent of childhood tumors end up diagnosed as glioblastomas (American Brain Tumor Association). Sadly, Howard Inlet’s daughter was a part of that three percent.

Collateral Beauty covers many topics including death, family, illness, love, parenthood, and question.

Death and illness play a part of the movie because they effect many major and minor characters throughout the film. Family and parenthood are involved in the plot because many different families are showed throughout the movie affected by illness, marital issues, and divorce. Parenthood plays a part because the majority of the characters are parents, or are aiming to become a parent in the future. The overall theme of it all is that love is stronger than death, or any other emotion. Love is what can show the light of

life.
The movie is just another work of Will Smith’s that will not fail to entertain the audience. Besides being an entertaining film, Collateral Beauty is meant to make the watchers think about the things in life that were given for the viewers push through. As seen with Howard, it can be difficult to regain control of life after losing someone so special and dear to the heart. When someone is in such a dark hole, it can be hard not to question the meaning to life. Howard certainly had his battles with discovering the importance to his life. Howard did not know how to handle such a big loss in his life, so he thought the answer to that was just to shut himself off from everyone else and the rest of his world. A scene that was especially powerful was when he was riding his bike in the middle of the road, not looking or caring if there was a car coming towards him. He was so lost inside himself that he simply did not care if he were to die, but he did not want to take the initiative to harm himself directly. The movie makes the watchers reevaluate how they have handled the bumps in their roads, and it reminds them of how blessed they can be without even realizing it. It makes the viewers ask, “what is your why?”
Collateral Beauty magnifies on how beautiful love can be. Love is important in the movie because it plays directly into the human spirit. It is a motivator for people to show their spirit. The emotion is not only embodied in relationships with a significant other, but it is felt in friendships and in family. Love is not a term that is only used for a lifelong partner, love can be used everywhere for anything. This movie shows exactly that. It shows how strong love is, and how one emotion can save someone from themselves. Love is stronger than death and can be felt more heavily than any other emotion.
Collateral Beauty shows how love can bring happiness. Happiness plays another major role as a motivator of the human spirit, happiness is like love’s best friend; they come together. If someone is happy, they may be inclined to spread their happiness onto others, thus becoming spreading the human spirit. Howard’s love was rekindled in a past relationship and was reconnected in his coworker’s friendships once he remembered how to find happiness. Not only did love appear in other people, but it appeared in the things Howard forgot he could once enjoy. Though not seen it in the movie, viewers assume that he returned to work and found his passion once again with working. Love is not just a human-to-human emotion, but a human-to-life emotion. With love comes happiness.
This movie is successful in exemplifying the human spirit because of how it shows people coming together to save someone they care about from the darkness. Howard is nonverbally seeking for help, and his friends see that after three years. They go on an incredible journey to reach out to him and provide him with the answers he needs to show him that they still care about him. Though the movie never visually shows the impact that the three friends had on Howard, it does show the courage his friends give him to return to his support group and reconnect with people that he pushed away when he needed people the most. As his three friends and the three actors work through Howard, they discover that they needed some guidance and reassurance in their own life. By helping Howard, they discovered that they needed more fulfillment in their own lives. His friends were not helping Howard to gain a reward, but they got more than they bargained for. The movie shows people working together out of the goodness of their hearts to help retouch with the meaning of life.
The reason why this movie was so powerful to me is because the story of the script was very realistic. The plot line had characters dealing with real life situations that the average person can go through every day. It was eye opening to see the point of view of so many unique characters, all struggling with something different. I would be lying if I said I do not worry about my family being effected by life’s worst attackers, including cancer and divorce. Though I am blessed enough to have not dealt with either of those things, it is still a worry of mine. The actors do an excellent job of portraying the struggles assigned to them, which makes the imprint of the message of love and the human spirit more substantial. It is like I can feel their pain as I am watching. I would recommend this movie to anyone who is not afraid to cry at a movie. My take away from this movie was to appreciate what you have, while you have it. Life will always throw you curveballs.
Collateral Beauty is a successful movie in the ways of entertainment. The movie captures the human spirit perfectly, shows how strong love and happiness can be, and makes one evaluate life overall. The movie shows that love and happiness are important when in relationships because it can motivate the human spirit to take action. After all of the hardship the characters each had to endure, by the end of the movie the light finally starts to shine through their dark clouds. What matters the most is that none of them gave up on improving their lives and getting what they wanted before the results came through. Some notes could be taken from Collateral Beauty. Life is beautiful when someone finds the source of their happiness. We should surround ourselves with people who can love us in our darkest times and return us to the light. What is the next step to take in life to bring complete happiness into your life?