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"Haley went toe-to-toe with Helen and Kevin and challenged them both. He is a truly
amazing and very, very honest actor with a knowledge and maturity far greater than his years. He has brought tremendous dignity and honesty to the character of Trevor. He thinks and feels every word he speaks." (Mimi Leder in Pay It Forward production notes) |
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Pay It Forward (2000) copyright Bel Air Entertainment, Tapestry Films and Warner Bros.
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Final Thought: Pay It Forward serves up a slice of life on a plain paper plate. There are
no trimmings or good china or silverware. Just an ordinary boy with an extraordinary idea. It's a movie that dares to ask, "What if you could take the things you don't like about this world and flip them around...?"
Haley fans owe it to themselves to see this film. Go prepared to laugh. Go prepared to
cry. Go prepared to see Haley at his best. MOVIE RATING: 3 1/2 of 5 stars |
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Do unto others as you have been done unto. Its the golden rule with a twist. A
perfect idea for a not-so-perfect world: pay it forward. It goes like this: I do something for you that you could not do for yourself. In exchange, you do the same for another needy soul, three times, instructing them to pass it along.
Who, you may ask, has the both the innocence to believe in such an utopian
idea and the courage to see it through? A thoughtful and compassionate 11-year-old Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment). When Trevor's social studies teacher, Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey), challenges his class with an extra credit assignment: come up with the way to change the world, and put it into action, Trevor takes the challenge to heart.
Every journey must have a beginning, no matter how small it may be. So Trevor
begins his quest with Jerry (James Caviezel), a homeless man with string of track marks on his arm and an appetite for mountainous bowls of Captian Crunch cereal. No sooner than Trevor's good deed has been done, and Jerry manages to get a job at a local motel, when Jerry slips back into grip of his drug addiction. Trevor is helpless to do anything and decides to move on.
Trevor sets up a 'meeting' at his home for Mr. Simonet and Trevor's mom, Arlene
(Helen Hunt). And although they soon figure out the plan for them, they manage to hold on to the spark Trevor has lit, if only for a little while. Eugene is scared of what may happen between Arlene and him. He has built up a wall of his every day life that he's not willing to break out of. He hasn't known anything but his routine for years and years. So eventually, they drift apart. But Trevor keeps pushing on.
He decides that he is going to help keep his friend from getting beat up. Trevor
rides up on three bullies as they're pushing his friend around. Fear gets the best of Trevor, however, and he finds himself watching as his friend is tossed into a dumpster. In Trevor's mind, pay it forward has completely failed. What he doesn't know is that four months, several hundred miles and a few pay it forwards later, the movement is in full swing.
When pay it forward comes to a freelance reporter (Jay Mohr) from Los Angeles
in the form of a new Jaguar, he is overwhelmed that someone would do something so, well... crazy. As he begins tracking the movement, person by person, we watch as Trevor struggles to bring his mom and his teacher together. And when it finally starts to click between them, and they become comfortable with each other, Trevor's dead- beat dad shows up and makes himself at home. But, the story goes on, and so does the movement. Every day. On film and in life. |