Jerry Hoffman

****/5

Rated PG for shamelessly trying to make you cry and for the inclusion of Papa Roach’s “Last Resort” (what was that all about?)

Once in a great while, a film comes along that has the ability to make you feel like you’re a complete jerk if you don’t adhere to it’s message.
I received the message of “Pay It Forward” loud and clear. That message is: The world may suck, but you should at least try to make it a better place.
“Pay It Forward” is both a film and concept that only the most hardcore
of cynics will turn their noses up at. It’s an uplifting movie in a mess
of fall time entertainment that is either uninspiring (“Bedazzled”), depressing
(“Lost Souls”) or just plain stupid (“Ladies Man”).
One of Hollywood’s finest actors, Kevin Spacey, stars alongside Helen
Hunt and Haley Joel Osment. Hunt has come a long way in her acting skills,
concentrating on quality films (except maybe, “Dr. T and the Women) in
an effort to make audiences forget about “Mad About You.”
Osment shines as Trevor McKinney, the eleven-year-old boy who develops
the concept of “pay it forward.” Proving that his performance in “Sixth
Sense” was no fluke, Osment plays the role of a troubled young boy with
a generous spirit to perfection. One can only hope that Osment will maintain
his charm and not suffer at the hands of puberty as some child actors
before him have; Fred Savage being the primary example.
Trevor lives with his mom, Arlene (Hunt), in Las Vegas. Arlene is a single
mother with two jobs, badly dyed hair and an alcohol problem. She hides
liqueur bottles in the washing machine and other various places around
the house, taking swigs from them whenever she feels stressed out.
Life changes for Trevor when he begins junior high (hell on earth) and
meets his new social studies teacher, Eugene Simonet (Spacey). Eugene
is not a typical teacher. He is covered with mysterious visible burns,
he makes his seventh grade students learn words such as “utopian” and
he asks his students to change the world.
At the beginning of every year, Eugene gives out an assignment to his
students telling them to develop a plan to change the world and put it
into action, never expecting them to actually do it. Trevor’s plan stands
out as one of the most original ideas that Eugene has ever heard.
Trevor will help three people with something big that they cannot do themselves
and they in turn will help three more people, who will each go on to help
three others. He develops “pay it forward” because, as he says, “The world
is shit.”
Trevor puts the plan into action, starting with a junkie, Jerry (James
Caviezel, “The Thin Red Line” and “Frequency”) he takes in to feed and
give shelter to. Jerry lets him down by slipping back into drugs and forgetting,
at least for the time being, his own pledge to pay it forward.
As might be expected, a romance develops between Arlene and Eugene, but
it is not formulaic as most Hollywood love stories are. It is a necessary
part of the plot and one of Trevor’s attempts to pay it forward.
In a sub-story set a few months in the future, the film parallels a journalist,
played by Jay Mohr, who has himself been paid forward. He is now seeking
the starter of the movement which has spread to Los Angeles, San Francisco
and other parts of the country.
Trouble brews as Trevor’s abusive, alcoholic father (played by Jon Bon
Jovi) returns home wanting Arlene back, saying that he is clean and sober
and a changed man.
To say that Bon Jovi is miscast is an understatement. As he promises to
make up for lost time, he sounds as though he is reading from a cue card.
Only when he gets to act drunk does he loosen up a bit and look as though
he has a pulse, playing the part of an a**hole pretty well.
Is that an Oscar-worthy performance I smell? Oh, no. It’s just the hairspray
that Bon Jovi uses to hold his rather feminine hairstyle in place.
The movie possesses many surprises and even some laughs. The ending, which
came as a complete surprise to me, left me thinking about what the movie
was proposing. Is it possible, that if people just tried a little harder
and were willing to sacrifice a bit, that the world could be a better
place?
“Pay It Forward” stands apart as one of the greatest movies this fall,
joined so far only by “Almost Famous.” It has everything necessary for
an excellent film: a great cast, an intelligent and well thought-out script,
humor and emotion. So much emotion, in fact, that my damn allergies acted
up during the movie and made my eyes appear a bit watery and red when
the lights were turned up at the end.
The world may suck, as Trevor says, but this movie doesn’t.

E-mail the author: Tricia WoolfendenLIFE Et cetera Writer