Movie Reviews

When eleven-year-old Trevor McKinney's teacher introduces a year-long homework assignment to "think of a way to make the world a better place, and put your idea into action", he proposes that rather than returning a favour for someone, instead "pay it forward" and do favours for three other strangers, and insist that they then do the same. Yeah, theoretically that sounds like a fantastic, wonderful idea and everything, but you can't deny that it also sounds a little cheesy and corny. The film Pay it Forward also turns out to be a little cheesy and corny.

Pay it Forward stars Haley-Joel Osment as Trevor; Kevin Spacey as his teacher, Mr. Simont; and Helen Hunt as Trevor's mom, Arlene, a "recovering" alcoholic. The film involves the relationship between Trevor and Mr. Simont, and Mr. Simont and Trevor's mom (Trevor tries to set them up). It also focuses on how wide the "pay it forward movement" expands after Trevor initiates the chain by inviting a homeless guy into his home to get cleaned up and fed.

Pay it Forward was involving enough to keep my attention, but the overwhelming sentimentality and super-good characters were a bit of a turnoff. A couple of casting choices were totally awful: Helen Hunt is way too intelligent to play an acoholic trailer-trash single mom who works at a strip bar, and what the hell was up with choosing Jon Bon Jovi to play her abusive ex-husband? Haley-Joel Osment was great in The Sixth Sense because had this great look about him: perpetually frightened, but also smart beyond his years. I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps Osment might be a bit of a one-note act, because he has that exact same look in Pay it Forward, and it doesn't seem to fit.

At the end of the film, it seems as though the filmmakers themselves were a little sick with the excessive 'goodness' of the main characters that they decided to have something shockingly bad happen. The problem is is that it was such a shamefully contrived and overwrought idea that I actually laughed a little when it happened.