Pay It Forward [DVD] [2000]

School teacher Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey) sets his class an assignment: they must each think up a way to make the world a better place. This prompts eleven-year-old Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment) to develop the idea that instead of paying back good deeds, one should instead pay them forward. Putting his idea into practice, Trevor performs an act of kindness for three different people, requiring each of those three to perform three further kindnesses themselves. In doing so he starts a chain reaction which does indeed make the world a better place. From .co.uk ----------- Director Mimi Leder's third movie, Pay it Forward, finds her moving into softer, more territory after making her name with a pair of high-budget action spectaculars, The Peacemaker and Deep Impact. This is a would-be heart-warming fable about the power of human kindness, but it's handled with such heavy sententiousness as to suggest that she might do better sticking to the big-bang stuff. Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense ( /exec/obidos/asin/B00004SC8K/${0} ), A.I.), son of a struggling lone parent (Helen Hunt) in Las Ve, is influenced by inspirational teacher Kevin Spacey to come up with a scheme for social betterment: do acts of benevolence to three people, each of whom then does something good for three more, and so on. Inevitably, the lad's first ventures come to grief, but then the idea starts catching on and spreading, and a reporter in Los Angeles gets wind of it. This Readers Digest-ish scenario, treated with great solemnity by Leder and screenwriter Leslie Dixon, leaves the cast struggling to make something individual out of their pre-cooked roles. As you'd expect given such a line-up of acting talent, several scenes come off better than they deserve, and Spacey in particular does wonders with what is, in effect, two Hollywood clichés rolled into one: not just "offbeat inspirational teacher" but "shy, reclusive burns victim" as well. Interesting, too, to see a Ve-set movie that shows a low-rent side of the city well away from the glitz and glamour of the Strip. But in the end, all else is drowned out by the clatter of predetermined plot-points being hammered home. On the DVD: Extras include a commentary from Leder, and a 13-minute "making-of" documentary that includes cast and director interviews. None of it, though, tells us much we couldn't have gathered from the movie. The clean widescreen (1.85:1) print and the Dolby 5.1 sound deliver on quality, and come fully into their own in the all-out bravura finale--shameless tear-jerking on a grand scale. --Philip Kemp P.when('A').execute(function(A) { A.on('a:expander:toggle_description:toggle:collapse', function(data) { window.scroll(0, data.expander.$expander[0].offsetTop-100); }); }); Synopsis -------- Social studies teacher Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey) gives his class anassignment: come up with an idea that will change the world. Eleven year old Trevor comes up with a revolutionary idea: Instead of paying a favour back, his idea is to pay three new people a favour, thus changing the lives of all around him. From the Back Cover ------------------- Tormented by an abusive and absent her (Jon Bon Jovi), young Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment - The Sixth Sense) takes his teacher's (Kevin Spacey) challenge, to make the world a better place as part of a school assignment, seriously. He comes up with an idea whereby instead of paying back good deeds, they are paid forward, by helping other people. The Pay It Forward system has massive repercussions transforming the lives of, amongst others, his alcoholic mother (Helen Hunt), struggling to support and raise her son, and his teacher, as they are forced to deal with their painful pasts. Their cult is both devastating and heart warming. See more ( javascript:void(0) )

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