Pay It Forward
"Man, have I got good news for you! No, not like all the other tripe I throw at you - this is the real thing - this is information that can change your life. Lest you believe for one minute that I've shaved what's left of my hair, starched and pressed my nicest saffron robe and taken to the airports of America in search of willing ears for the message of all messages, dig this:
Actually, you can start this experience with a fact-finding junket of your own - hop on down to your local Barnes & Noble, Borders or whatever online click-and-mortar book warehouse suits you. Then, look up all the titles in the "Relationships" section. You'll find out that you don't know how to talk to, much less understand, your significant other, your kids, your parents, your cat or your geraniums. If they wrote books about how badly your car hates you, we'd have to add that one, too. Just when you've begun to feel so screwed up that you'll never be able to raise the energy to gnaw through the straps that are holding you down, someone hands you a copy of the Los Angeles Times, in which you find a copyrighted article that states - I am not making this up - that 63% of all Americans feel they're in a dysfunctional relationship. The margin of error is plus or minus about 63%, but don't let that throw you, statistics are our friends. Don't you see how cool that is? Family dysfunction is NORMAL now, bunky. That makes non-dysfunctional families dysfunctional, which then qualifies them to be normal again. Don't take my unreliable word for it, go see "Pay It Forward" with Kevin Spacey, Haley Joel Osment, Helen Hunt, James Caviezel, Jon Bon Jovi and Angie Dickinson. Written by Ryan Hyde and Leslie Dixon, directed by Mimi Leder. MPAA rating PG-13 for mature thematic elements including substance abuse/recovery, some sexual situations, language and brief violence. Run time two hours.
I'm constantly amazed at the ability of actors like Kevin Spacey to spin straw into gold. This Spacey trifecta is rounded out with Haley Joel Osment and Helen Hunt, who carries herself in a totally un-Helen Huntlike role as an alcoholic waitress in search of herself and the shards of her relationship with her disaffected and disillusioned son. Funny, at first read, there really isn't that much of a story to "Pay It Forward", and the most you can say for it is that the direction is fairly consistent and lets the actors do their jobs. Given that, the actors walk in, go to work, and create a neat little world out of thin air.
The setup:
Kevin Spacey is Eugene Simonet, a Middle School Social Studies teacher in Las Vegas. He is precise, demanding and unapologetic. On the first day of school he hands out dictionaries, explains what they're used for and then dishes out an assignment to his class; an extra credit exercise meant to last the year and get his kids thinking about their place in the world: Come up with an idea for something you can do to make the world a better place and put the idea into action. Simple enough.
Trevor McKinney (Osment), a serious eleven-year-old, ponders the assignment and after a trial balloon episode with a homeless man from down by the tracks, lays down the essence of the plot and the title of the moovie - pay it forward - do something nice for three people - something they can't do for themselves, something they need and without compensation other than the admonition to not pay it back, but rather pay it forward to another three people, then they pay it forward - ad infinitum. Random acts of kindness with a half twist. (Degree of difficulty, 2.8) In a matter of a couple dozen iterations, your little triple-mizpah covers just about every living H. sapiens on the planet, minus David Hasselhoff, Bert Parks and Adam Sandler. They are absolutely on their own - I looked it up in the rule book.
There will be those who say the premise in "Pay It Forward" is earth-shattering in its simplicity and an elegant statement about how one person can change the world. Get outta here! If this pass-it-on trick changes your thinking in any appreciable way, you probably hadn't been doing very much of it to begin with.
Meanwhile, the main back story is about Trevor's mom coming to grips with her alcoholism and her general inability to function as a mother or anything else without gulping down a quart or two of Skin Bracer. Back story number two is kept from us for quite a while, and deals with Simonet's past and HIS inability to relate. See? I told you dysfunction was pandemic. Everyone in this moovie is broken or defective in some way or another, and I suppose that's half its appeal. Back story number three is a reporter's attempt to get to the bottom of what seems an impossibly unlikely chain of charitable events.
There are several bright spots in "Pay It Forward" - the acting, as noted is high quality, if not particularly destined for an Oscar photo-op. (Their chances would have been much better with a stronger story.) Angie Dickinson plays Trevor's living-in-a-Buick-station wagon, Sterno-swilling grandmother, another late surprise in the plot, and gets high marks for an earnest, gritty and decidedly unglamorous performance. Haley Joel Osment, the hardest working eleven-year old in show business, should pray for a pituitary malfunction - he still has the face of an innocent and he uses it to hold his acting with tremendous effectiveness. May he never go the way of McCauley Caulkin.
Just between the two of us "Pay It Forward" is just average in a lot of respects, compounded by a maudlin "Field of Dreams" ending. The only salvation is that the schmaltz is accompanied by my favorite lilting Canadian, Jane Siberry. But still, schmaltz is schmaltz.
I think you should see "Pay It Forward", and while my opinions are just that, I don't think "Pay It Forward" really lives up to its early hype as the best moovie of the millennium, or whatever they might have said about it. It's a pretty good moovie with great acting by amazing actors. That's a lot more than many moovies bring to the party, right? 'Nuff said.
If I give it three cows, and they each give it three cows, who then...
Actually, you can start this experience with a fact-finding junket of your own - hop on down to your local Barnes & Noble, Borders or whatever online click-and-mortar book warehouse suits you. Then, look up all the titles in the "Relationships" section. You'll find out that you don't know how to talk to, much less understand, your significant other, your kids, your parents, your cat or your geraniums. If they wrote books about how badly your car hates you, we'd have to add that one, too. Just when you've begun to feel so screwed up that you'll never be able to raise the energy to gnaw through the straps that are holding you down, someone hands you a copy of the Los Angeles Times, in which you find a copyrighted article that states - I am not making this up - that 63% of all Americans feel they're in a dysfunctional relationship. The margin of error is plus or minus about 63%, but don't let that throw you, statistics are our friends. Don't you see how cool that is? Family dysfunction is NORMAL now, bunky. That makes non-dysfunctional families dysfunctional, which then qualifies them to be normal again. Don't take my unreliable word for it, go see "Pay It Forward" with Kevin Spacey, Haley Joel Osment, Helen Hunt, James Caviezel, Jon Bon Jovi and Angie Dickinson. Written by Ryan Hyde and Leslie Dixon, directed by Mimi Leder. MPAA rating PG-13 for mature thematic elements including substance abuse/recovery, some sexual situations, language and brief violence. Run time two hours.
I'm constantly amazed at the ability of actors like Kevin Spacey to spin straw into gold. This Spacey trifecta is rounded out with Haley Joel Osment and Helen Hunt, who carries herself in a totally un-Helen Huntlike role as an alcoholic waitress in search of herself and the shards of her relationship with her disaffected and disillusioned son. Funny, at first read, there really isn't that much of a story to "Pay It Forward", and the most you can say for it is that the direction is fairly consistent and lets the actors do their jobs. Given that, the actors walk in, go to work, and create a neat little world out of thin air.
The setup:
Kevin Spacey is Eugene Simonet, a Middle School Social Studies teacher in Las Vegas. He is precise, demanding and unapologetic. On the first day of school he hands out dictionaries, explains what they're used for and then dishes out an assignment to his class; an extra credit exercise meant to last the year and get his kids thinking about their place in the world: Come up with an idea for something you can do to make the world a better place and put the idea into action. Simple enough.
Trevor McKinney (Osment), a serious eleven-year-old, ponders the assignment and after a trial balloon episode with a homeless man from down by the tracks, lays down the essence of the plot and the title of the moovie - pay it forward - do something nice for three people - something they can't do for themselves, something they need and without compensation other than the admonition to not pay it back, but rather pay it forward to another three people, then they pay it forward - ad infinitum. Random acts of kindness with a half twist. (Degree of difficulty, 2.8) In a matter of a couple dozen iterations, your little triple-mizpah covers just about every living H. sapiens on the planet, minus David Hasselhoff, Bert Parks and Adam Sandler. They are absolutely on their own - I looked it up in the rule book.
There will be those who say the premise in "Pay It Forward" is earth-shattering in its simplicity and an elegant statement about how one person can change the world. Get outta here! If this pass-it-on trick changes your thinking in any appreciable way, you probably hadn't been doing very much of it to begin with.
Meanwhile, the main back story is about Trevor's mom coming to grips with her alcoholism and her general inability to function as a mother or anything else without gulping down a quart or two of Skin Bracer. Back story number two is kept from us for quite a while, and deals with Simonet's past and HIS inability to relate. See? I told you dysfunction was pandemic. Everyone in this moovie is broken or defective in some way or another, and I suppose that's half its appeal. Back story number three is a reporter's attempt to get to the bottom of what seems an impossibly unlikely chain of charitable events.
There are several bright spots in "Pay It Forward" - the acting, as noted is high quality, if not particularly destined for an Oscar photo-op. (Their chances would have been much better with a stronger story.) Angie Dickinson plays Trevor's living-in-a-Buick-station wagon, Sterno-swilling grandmother, another late surprise in the plot, and gets high marks for an earnest, gritty and decidedly unglamorous performance. Haley Joel Osment, the hardest working eleven-year old in show business, should pray for a pituitary malfunction - he still has the face of an innocent and he uses it to hold his acting with tremendous effectiveness. May he never go the way of McCauley Caulkin.
Just between the two of us "Pay It Forward" is just average in a lot of respects, compounded by a maudlin "Field of Dreams" ending. The only salvation is that the schmaltz is accompanied by my favorite lilting Canadian, Jane Siberry. But still, schmaltz is schmaltz.
I think you should see "Pay It Forward", and while my opinions are just that, I don't think "Pay It Forward" really lives up to its early hype as the best moovie of the millennium, or whatever they might have said about it. It's a pretty good moovie with great acting by amazing actors. That's a lot more than many moovies bring to the party, right? 'Nuff said.
If I give it three cows, and they each give it three cows, who then...
