The new Will Smith movie, Collateral Beauty took theaters across the globe by storm this past November. Gaining phenomenal reviews as a must-see movie, I felt the need to see for myself how good of a movie it could be, especially after the trailer sparked major emotional turmoil. Now, I am one that loves sappy romance movies and tear-jerkers, so I have quite the experience with such dramas.

Firstly, I want to comment on the music choice for the movie’s trailer and the soundtrack. “Let’s Hurt Tonight” by One Republic is fitting for the raging emotions and different stories that take place in the movie. It captures the audience’s attention and allows them to explore what is happening in their lives. It’s personal, yet broad enough to reach everyone.

Secondly, the movie has more than one storyline. The trailer focuses on a man, Howard Inlet (Will Smith), who is struggling emotionally after his six-year-old daughter died from a rare form of brain cancer. After her tragic death, he spirals into an unhealthy mental state that has all of his friends worried for him. However, the movie contains three extra story lines. One story line involves a woman named Claire Wilson (Kate Winslet), who is running out of time to start a family and is struggling with the idea that she may never have a family or children of her own because she is consumed by her work life. The second story line involves a man named Whit Yardshaw (Edward Norton), who has a broken relationship with his daughter after struggling from a divorce. Yardshaw fails to see love in relationships past romantic love. Lastly, Michael Peña portrays Simon Scott, a man who is dying from cancer, but is avoiding the fact by hiding it from everyone that he loves, including his family and friends. All three characters are facing one of the main themes within the movie. Plus, it makes it fitting because each of the characters are paired with the imaginary thing of their theme.

To make sense of the aforementioned, the three main themes surrounding the movie, as said by Inlet in his opening monologue, are “Love, Time, Death.” These three themes are the imaginary “things” that Inlet ends up writing to as a therapeutic step to help him heal. All three of the “things” he writes to, he writes in complete anger. However, after multiple attempts of his friends to help him get better, Inlet's three friends take extra steps to wake Inlet up from his growing depression.

Now that I have laid out a summary of the events that take place in Smith’s new movie, there are three things that we, as humans, should take from the lessons being taught from the tearjerker.

1. Love

Love is everywhere. Love is within you when you are happy, sad, hurting and angry. Love will be with you no matter what because if love was not there, you wouldn’t feel anything. There is love when you are with the one that you love. There is love when you are hurting and grieving from the loss of a loved one. There is love when you are fighting. How is there love, you ask? If you love, it causes all of your other emotions. If you didn’t love the person who died, you wouldn’t feel sad. If you didn’t love the person that you were fighting with, you wouldn’t feel sadness. If you didn’t feel pain when something didn’t go the right way that means that you didn’t care enough to feel it. Love is always present, even when you are hurting.

2. Time

We never have enough time. It flies before we blink an eye. It goes by like a snail when you are bored. We complain that we never have enough time, but we are wasting our time if we spend it complaining instead of using it to do something amazing. We sit around and wallow that time is too scarce; time is a gift. The time with our loved ones is a gift. The time that we have to see the world is a gift. The time that we have to explore who we are is a gift. Time is limited, but we have all the time in the world do follow what we believe in.

3. Death

I don’t know a single person who doesn’t fear death. I know that I fear death. It is a concept most people try to avoid, for no one wants to experience the grief that comes with death. We avoid death because we don’t understand it. I don’t understand it, but that’s the thing: we don’t have to understand it. Grieving and death don’t have answers because they are bigger than the human mind can grasp, and that is where time and love come into play. Time and love are here to help us recover from the death of a loved one. Remembering the time and love of the person, as well as spending time and loving everything around you after the death of the person will help you cope with the grieving. Death is strange and is a concept that we will never be able to fully understand.

Nonetheless, with these three main concepts, the main lesson we must get out of

Collateral Beauty is to see the collateral beauty in everything. What does that mean? Well, it means that behind all the pain, the sadness, and the grief, there is a secondary point-of-view or another way to view a situation. There can be beauty in grieving because it means that there is love for the person you are grieving for, there is love between the people who are grieving together and there is love for the meaning of life. The collateral beauty can help you see a brighter side. So, as we begin the new year, be sure to remember to see the collateral beauty.