Helen Hunt Movie:

Editorial Review:
Pay It Forward is a multi-level marketing scheme of the heart. Beginning as a seventh-grade class assignment to put into action an idea that could change the world, young Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment) comes up with a plan to do good deeds for three people who then by way of payment each must do good turns for three other people. These nine people also must pay it forward and so on, ad infinitum. If successful, the resulting network of do-gooders ought to comprise the entire world. Trevor's attempts to get the ball rolling include befriending a junkie (James Caviezel) and trying to set up his recovering-alcoholic mother (Helen Hunt) with his burn-victim teacher (Kevin Spacey), who posed the assignment.

While this could have turned into unmitigated schmaltz, the acting elevates this film to mitigated schmaltz. By turns powerful and measured, the performances of Spacey, Hunt, and Osment can't make up for the many missteps in a screenplay that sanitizes the look of the lower-middle class and expects us to believe that homeless alcoholics and junkies speak in the elevated manner of grad students. (Can that really be Angie Dickinson as Hunt's dispossessed mother? Yes, it is!) The germ of the story is a good one, though, and one may wonder how it would have been handled by the likes of Frank Capra, who could balance sentiment with humor. But clearly Capra would never have let the ending of his version to take the nosedive into cliché and pathos that director Mimi Leder has allowed in this film. More than a few viewers will also recognize that Leder has blatantly borrowed her final image from Field of Dreams, where its intended effect was more keenly and honestly felt. --Jim Gay

Pay It Forward [Region 2] Reviews:
Favorite Movie
2008-10-30 - This is an amazing movie. The theme is that we are all connected in ways that we often don't even imagine. Recommend it highly.

Pay it forward.
2008-10-19 - The movie was good, but I am not rating the movie, but the seller. The movie was delivered in excellent conditions, fast, and there were not problems. What could we need, beyond this? Fast, convenient, well priced. This seller I recommend.

Pay It Forward
2008-10-07 - This is a fantastic movie. My Granddaughter just loves it and that is
why I bought it. It is a Christmas Present for her.

If you could get past the swearing the concept is wonderful.
2008-09-27 - If you could get past the swearing and the constant taking the Lord's name in vain the concept of Paying It Forward is wonderful. We do practice that in our home and Family. Every American citizen Paying It Forward would change the face/course of this Great Nation of ours. This is NOT a Family friendly movie at all because of the language and two bad scenes ... one in the beginning with dancers on poles in a bar setting and a bedroom scene. Shame on Amazon for billing this as a Family movie.

Pay it, it's worth every dime...
2008-09-09 - This is one of my absolute favourite movies! The story of how a young boy tries to change the world and make it a better place. Besides being a great movie, this story really has a message and it had a great impact on me. Buy this movie and it will grip your heart...