Pay It Forward 2000

'Pay It Forward' is not suitable for cynics, but for people who like a somewhat exaggerated sentimental drama.

The film starts with the story about the journalist Chris Chandler, whose car is driven total-loss in a hostage situation. He stands for a while in the rain, until a stranger throws him the keys to his brand new Jaguar. In this scene Chris and we, as a viewer, get acquainted with the concept of 'Pay It Forward' for the first time: someone is completely selfless and does not want anything in return, just the hope that you do a good deed for three other people . The journalist is curious about the origin of this concept and looks for the inventor of the idea. Meanwhile, the film jumps back four months. Eleven-year-old Trevor McKinney starts his first day in high school and during a social studies class he gets the difficult assignment to come up with an idea to improve the world and put it into operation. On the way back home, he cycles past a couple of tramps, whom he looks closely at. His mother is not at home, but works in a striptease bar. Trevor immediately seizes the opportunity to invite one of the vagrants, another junkie, to a dinner party and the dinner prepared with care by his mother is sacrificed to the junk Jerry. Trevor also gives his savings to Jerry, so that Jerry can look after himself and look for a job. Jerry is the first person for whom Trevor does a good deed, and the only thing he wants to do in return is that Jerry does a good deed for three other people. Because of this snowball effect the world has to improve.

So far the film can still be tackled. However, the next person who wants to help Trevor is his social studies teacher. Eugene Simonet is deformed by the many burns he has, but he does not want to talk about. He is therefore quite self-absorbed and Trevor thinks that that should change. He wants to link him to his white-trash mother, Arlene. Helen Hunt leaves a strong impression as Arlene. The superficial comedy actress from shows that her Oscar for the tragicomedy 'As Good As It Gets' was no fluke, but she is not convincing as a white trash, she talks too articulate and despite the bad makeup and whorish outfits she comes across as a decent woman. The script writers have tried to obscure this fact by repeatedly dropping it against Eugene Simonet when he once again uses a difficult word - his hobbyhorse - but it does not work. The film gets bogged down by Trevor's second good deed in a romantic film and that is actually a shame.

The relationship between Spacy and Hunt is not very credible on paper, but both actors still try to make something beautiful out of it and that works fine. In the meantime, Jerry has continued the chain by keeping an attractive lady from jumping off a bridge and journalist Chris is now tracking Trevor. Aside from the fact that you can wonder if Trevor's transfer system would work, the film has succeeded in its design - just like Catherine Ryan Hyde's book - to improve the world a little bit, because there will undoubtedly be people have become and become thinking about the society in which we live.

The anticlimax are the last minutes of the film: they are so melodramatic and revolting, that you wonder if there really was no other end to knit That said, the end worked for me personally, and every time I rewatch it.. it works. It's not as tearjerking as Kevin Spacey's burn origin story. But it definitely does what it was supposed to do.

7.1/10

I was feeling a bit sick today and this film was on TV. My parents had told me about it previously, so I ended up watching it with my dad. I remember checking out the critical opinion on it, which was not too favourable. That's not to say it was inherently wrong, though. "Pay It Forward" is quite emotionally manipulative. Tearjerkers are aplenty here, and you kind of have to quell your inner cynic to enjoy it. While it's inherently dumb, I'm not going to lie - I liked the movie. In fact, I would have rated it higher if the ending hadn't been so rushed.

"Pay It Forward", at its core, is a story about a kid who wants to believe the world isn't such a "shitty place". He wants to know there is something good in it. It's overtly sentimental, but it did affect me. Simple ideas can go a long way, and that's not to say that the film doesn't tackle some heavy themes either. It prefers to reject the notion that people can't change and instead it insists that it's worth trying. Pretty neat idea, but it would not be satisfying if the concept worked out perfectly, not would it be believable. I'd actually argue that the writing was rather impressive until the end, when somebody must have realised there was no easy way to wrap up the character arcs presented in a straightforward way. I won't spoil it of course, but I'll just say that it goes for cheap emotional thrills and cliched grandoise, a fact that does not sit well with the grounded feel of all the previous set-up.

"Pay It Forward" is basically a pyramid scheme, except you're exchanging good acts with other people. And just like any other pyramid scheme, things aren't so simple. The ideas here are quite great, but I didn't find their resolution particularly conclusive. Still, the set-up was more than 90% of the movie and kept me hooked throughout. The characters presented are pretty well-written, even if Eugene's backstory was a tad overdramatic. I guess this goes for the whole film, though. But I really did like the McKinney family's story, which was a pretty good depiction of family struggles. It's where we spent the most time, though we do get glimpses of other persons through the eyes of Jay Mohr's journalist character, who is trying to trace back the origin of the Pay It Forward phenomenon he's been observing. Things get a little confusing timeline-wise, but it's written well enough that you get the idea by the end.

The acting here is great and I have no gripes with any performances whatsoever. Haley Osment did great at the age he played Trevor, giving us a very powerful performance with childhood innocence. Helen Hunt shows us the mental state of a broken mother. I won't go through the others, but these are two that impacted me the most. I will also say that the soundtrack was good enough for me to note it here. Really think that the melodies were able to stand out.

Altogether, I liked the film. It would be easy for me to take the place of the know-it-all, emotionally distant movie critic and trash it down to its foundations, but I'd rather enjoy what is a clear heartstring tugger. I don't blame anyone for not enjoying this flick, but I won't deny that I was touched by some of the stories here. I do wish the conclusion wrapped up the character arcs, but I'll let it slide somewhat due to the sheerly engaging content beforehand. Hollywood or not, there are some powerful themes here. Worth a watch for any who are willing to settheir disbelief aside.