Pay it Forward Directed by: Mimi Leder The story, plus the overall theme of the film basically folds on itself a little over halfway through. The idea is simple, and could have developed into something so spectacular, so great it would have inspired audience members to do something fantastic. I don't think the people behind Pay It Foward will realize what they had going, but screwed up, until it is released nationwide. Sure it will make money, but it won't inspire. Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment) is a 7th grader who gets stuck in Social Studies with the new teacher, Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey). Mr. Simonet, who has scar tissues all over his face (THE BIG MYSTERY!!!), conveys to the students on the first day that they need to help change the world, even if it's a small change at that. The idea of changing the world sparks an interest in young Trevor, so he brings home a bum (Jim Caviezel) off the street to eat some Peanut Butter Captain Crunch cereal. Better than atomic fireballs. Trevor's mother (played a la Erin Brokovich by Helen Hunt in short tops) kicks the bum out, and finds out that Mr. Simonet is the one who put this radical notion of bringing a bum home into Trevor's head. Basically, she rips his ass. Trevor invents the system of "Pay it Forward" after helping the bum. For every favor a person does for you, in turn you must do three other people a favor of human kindness. The bum pays his forward by using Trevor's savings account money to buy heroin. Damn system!! Trevor's mother uses the method to try to bag Mr. Simonet, and vice versa. There's whole other subplots in the film as well involving gangsters hanging out with bagladies, and kids with asthma. Everything in Pay it Forward seems to work off of coincidence. Jon Bon Jovi, of all people, shows up as the alcoholic ex-husband. Who would have thought? He isn't too much up for Trevor's pay it forward concept, so his character fades away. Don't like the system, then get the hell out of it!! Message to Jon, stick to local theater troupes. The first fault of the film is not taking the notion of "pay it forward" to a larger scale. They keep it in the family when you are expecting it to reach out to other characters. By the halfway mark, the movie isn't even about the experiment, it's about how Reuben and Trevor's mother want each other so bad, then they don't. They pay each other back, but then they don't want it back. Then they want to pay it forward, but it's too late because they already paid it back. By the way, this all happened four months ago even though the story ends in the present which is four months ago. Confused? It's called "novel into film," and it is a plague. Hint: you can't flashback and flash-forward like the director Mimi Leder (Deep Impact) does here. It's a literary device that most likely worked in the novel (which I haven't read), but not in this film. Leder is trying to mix too much mysticism with human kindness here, and it just doesn't bring any emotions to the screen. The ending is a total copout, and is especially handcrafted for hearts made out of cheap Kleenex boxes. I dare you not to giggle at the at the final shot. And what's up with the soundtrack being almost identical to American Beauty's? Performance wise, Spacey and Hunt steal the show for the first half.
They are working with extremely overused dialogue here, and they try to
breath life into the usual motions. The photography of the film is uplifting,
but fades. The "teacher with the scars" character is nothing we
didn't already see in The Man Without a Face. The classroom scenes
are somewhat effective, but who isn't tired of the Jaime Escalante/John
Keating teacher role in motivational films dealing with hard-headed students?
It's a shame, because this film was so close to working, and that is what
made it such a let down. |
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