Review of Pay It Forward (2000) by Lee T — 17 Jul 2014

What happened to Haley Joel Osment? He was such a good- oh yeah, that's right, he grew up. It's such a shame too, at such a young age he had already given three amazing performances and even got an Oscar nomination. It helps to have him, Hunt and Spacey here because their layered performances really do ground everything and make it what it is.

I think the story would have been better if the reporter sideplot and pay it forward 'movement' was left out of it, I understand that's the whole point of the film but after about 30 minutes I knew what the theme of the whole thing was and it was predictable. Saying that though, the energy this film emits is a very nice and positive one, even if it occasionally bashes you over the head with it's theme, the sheer niceness of it all is hard to resist. The three main characters are so well written and developed that the film could have stood up on it's own if it just involved those three. Things aren't as they seem and other things get revealed as time goes by and everything does fit together, it is quite satisfying. Other actors are good too, David Ramsey was a lot of fun and Jim Caviezel was downright unrecognisable and has a good story to his character, they all round out the cast very well. The music here was good too, it fits well.

The only complaint in regards to characters is I think some of Osment's dialogue was a tad unrealistic, I don't think a boy of 12 would really say the things he said and treat his mother the way he did, he was angry, sure, I get that, but it really made him, at times, unlikable and not all that relatable. And the font used in the film looks like something made in Sony Vegas.

I noticed some very forced coincidences with trying to have every character know every other character, especially with the PiF 'movement', when I saw that I found it quite unrealistic. I'm not really a fan of the ending either, while I'm happy it's unconventional, it came out of no where and really killed the mood of the whole film, it's hardly all nice as the film does deal with some dark themes, and it is based on a book so you can't change everything, but it felt really out of place. One of the sideplots didn't go anywhere and it involved Caviezel's character, I read a post on imdb that was an alternate ending, it involved what he did and would have brought the film full circle but as it stands we never see his character again.

Was it bad? No, I don't really think so, which might be surprising given my complaints. Some of the 'movement' dialogue got a bit heavy handed at some points and maybe a bit unrealistic. As it stands, however, it's a well acted film with fantastic character development, its heart is in the right place, which is where it succeeds most and for the most part it is just really good. I never checked my watch, or rushed away when it was over but a few more edits and a script rewrite and it could just have been a powerful family drama. But given the good performances, story and it's heart, that's why I gave it the score I did and liked it overall, however, I can really understand where the tomatometer is coming from though and that's a rarity.