Overall Rating
  Awesome: 24%
Worth A Look: 26%
Average: 13.33%
Pretty Bad: 26.67%
Total Crap: 10%
9 reviews, 96 user ratings
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| Pay It Forward |
by Scott Weinberg
"Sappy, forced, artificial and manipulative--but really well ACTED! Great."
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You gotta love those plucky 'what-if' movies. You know - the ones that aspire to be classified as 'Capra-esque'! A movie where a universe very similar to ours is presented, only this world can change and dreams can come true, people are honest, and the violins swoon in the background and the two leads each win an Oscar...<ahem>...which is the only reason Pay It Forward really exists.It's too bad that a handful of great acting performances can't save a movie from being this disappointing. As always, Kevin Spacey is simply a force of nature, and Helen Hunt gives a brave performance as a single mother just this close to being white trash. Individually and in their common scenes together, these are two eminently enjoyable actors offering some excellent (and even occasionally touching) portrayals. Suffice to say that the acting is not where Pay It Forward fails. For that, we look to the screenplay.
11-year old Trevor (Osment) has just been given a challenging assignment by his new Social Studies teacher: Devise a way to change the world, and then put your plan in action. Trevor concocts the idea of 'Paying Forward' which (in theory, anyway) is an effective pyramid-type scheme, in which someone who truly help out three strangers without expecting anything in return. As opposed to paying someone back for their kindness, the next person should instead pay it forward.
Trevor's first plan is to help a homeless man to get a job and stay off drugs. Unfortunately, things don't go to plan and that subplot is quickly jettisoned. (The editing and continuity are not exactly strong points in this film.) His second plan is to pair up his mother (Hunt) with the new teacher, Mr. Simonet (Spacey). But Simonet is covered with these awful burn scars, which prevent him from letting anyone get close to him.
It's at about this point that the movie begins to stray way off base. While the film could have been clever in the way it tracks Trevor's scheme from person to person, we are instead stuck with this forced romance between two unhappy people. The individual scenes work solely thanks to the presence of such strong actors. As far as the movie as a whole, almost nothing holds together.
Interesting minor characters are introduced, and then forgotten just as quickly. Subplots involving a reporter, a junkie, a criminal, a homeless old lady, and a lawyer are introduced and start out pretty as compelling, but too much time is wasted between these smaller stories. It's as if the studio realized that they had two 'big Oscar winners' in their movie, so that means they simply had to dominate the movie.
As the disfigured Mr. Simonet, Spacey brings his typical world-weary intelligence and wit, but he could do a role like this in his sleep. And the whole 'disfigured face' thing is nothing more than an old Oscar ploy, talented performer or not. Helen Hunt is also as strong as ever, although I think her character comes off a bit too 'slutty & raw' than was intended. As Trevor, Haley Joel Osment gives another strong performance, but he mainly just seems like 'that kid from The Sixth Sense'.
What's wrong with this movie is that we're not allowed to feel any emotions on our own. Every emotional scene is played to the hilt of overdone Hollywood melodrama. After a while, you realize you're watching a depressing romance movie, when the main plot of Trevor's scheme is infinitely more interesting. There are way too many scenes of Spacey or Hunt glaring at each other through tear-stained eyes while the music swells depressingly through the theaters.The main complaint I have here is that Pay It Forward never stays true to its initial tone. First, it's a wistful and hopeful story, then it's bleak and downcast romance, before completely blowing it in the final five minutes. I won't give anything away, but what worked in the novel does NOT work here. I can't remember another movie in which the mood switches so many times and in such shallow fashion. It ends up making a somewhat likeable movie into a horrid and manipulative farce, and I left the theater angry.
link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=3898&reviewer=128
originally posted: 10/20/00 22:03:40
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USA
20-Oct-2000 (PG-13)
UK
N/A
Australia
22-Feb-2001 (PG)
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