I have seen a lot of movies and there have been some I don't like,and there's some I hate, Pay It Forward is one of the few movies I really don't like at all. I thought it sounded good, concept seemed there, cast had potential to make something memorable and it even sounded pretty good on paper. So what went wrong... basically a lot, the writing was awful, and the direction did not help at all, nor did the acting. And in the end Pay It Forward became nothing more than a manipulating tear jerker that expected you to care about the characters.

The plot is simple, Trevor McKinney is a seventh grader with a good heart, he lives with his mom Arlene who works two jobs and drinks heavily, she basically defines white trash. Trevor's teacher Eugene Simonet gives the class an assignment to make the world a better place. Trevor decides he is going to do three good deeds to someone and in turn they will do three good deeds and so on and so forth. Apparently this works in the movie.

That's the basic plot and it isn't terrible it just has a terrible execution. The whole concept of good deeds are good is pretty obvious but Pay it Forward takes that philosophy and shoves it down your throat suffocating you to death. Its one thing if a movie preaches good values but its another if it uses it to manipulate you into following them. It feels incredibly forced and shamelessly tugs at your heart.

The acting in this film was not very good. Kevin Spacey wasn't bad, and was probably the best part about the movie. It wasn't anything near as good as American Beauty but Kevin Spacey still manages not to completely fail with the terrible script. Helen Hunt was just as bad as the movie. Maybe it was the fact that I hated her character but she didn't do anything to make me want to like her. Haley Joel Osment who I usually like had a very bad combination of being incredibly bland and really annoying. The supporting cast didn't do the movie any favors either. Jay Mohr and Jim Caviezel both were miscast and couldn't do anything in their roles. But all of the cast seemed marginally okay when compared to Jon Bon Jovi's role. I really hope it was a joke that somehow ended up happening when he was cast. He played the role of Helen Hunt's ex husband who comes back, not only is it one of the most cliche roles ever they cast Jon Bon Jovi who is one of the worst actor/musician's.

I get that the movie for the most part is supposed to be more about the message. The problem is that the movie is so bad that it makes getting a message out of it impossible and honestly I don't think the message is all that great. Its basically do good deeds and be nice to people, I don't think we need a whole movie about that and especially one that's so manipulative. It takes its moral and bashes you on the head with it till your unconscious, I felt the same way about M Night  Shamalayns the Happening. The plausibility of this movie is quite unrealistic but that's one thing I don't exactly hold against the film. Mostly because if you try to apply real world logic to film's about 99% of them will fail. The one thing that probably infuriated me more than anything was the ending. Spoilers will follow obviously.

The ending was the most ridiculous  contrived ending I have ever seen. It pretty much rips off the ending to American History X, but where in that film it felt necessary and organic to the film here it felt so painfully contrived and existed just to make people sad and care about the movie. If you haven't guessed it by now Haley Joel Osment's character dies, for no reason other than some bullies had it in for him. Also I'm pretty sure there is some Christian subtext going on (Jesus sacrificing himself) but I think it flew past most people, not that, thats a bad thing but it didn't help the movie. I get that they wanted people to be sad but feeling emotion for characters only happens when you care about them, I did not care about any of the characters and would have been fine if they all died.

Overall I did not enjoy this movie at all. It tugs at your heart strings and fails on every level. The characters are unoriginal and bland, none of them have a personality, the message is painfully obvious and drilled in your head. How this movie didn't become a standard Lifetime movie I will never know. I can't say too much more on why I didn't like this movie, I realize there are plenty of people who do and that's fine but for me it just did nothing. The emotion was flat, the writing was boring and painful to listen to, and the directing was so bland and uninteresting. I really didn't like this movie, one of my least favorites of all time, (The Patriot also being one) but at least it gives me hope that any movie can be better than this one.

Papa Roach is also in the soundtrack... seriously.

0 stars

Cast


Kevin Spacey - Eguene Simonet

Helen Hunt - Arlene McKenna

Haley Joel Osment - Trevor McKenna

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older