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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 1225
Released: May 15, 2001 |
| Our Price: $4.34 |
| Used Price: $1.99 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Just imagine. You do a favor that really helps someone and tell him or her not to pay it back, but to pay it forward to three other people who, in turn, each pay it forward to three more and on and on into a global outpouring of kindness and decency. Impossible? Junior high student Trevor McKinney wont accept that. Haley Joel Osment plays Trevor, who starts a chain reaction of goodness for his social studies project in this bittersweet and uplifting tale directed by Mimi Leder (Deep Impact), based on the novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde and also starring Academy Award winners Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt. How much impact can one heartfelt idea have? Do yourself a favor and find out, see Pay It Forward.
Description of Pay It Forward:
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 Reviews:
Heartwarming and Gripping 
2009-10-28 - This movie is both heartwarming and heartgripping at the same time. I thouroughly enjoyed it and have told so many others about it. I believe this is exactly how God wants us to live life. When we bless others, God blesses us.
A super movie
2009-09-26 - was so very glad when I was able to order "Pay it Forward" through Amazon. If everyone would just follow the premise in this movie, we could change the world! I encourage everyone....young old and in between.....to see this movie. It is Quality and well worth the time and effort to see it.
Excellent Read!
2009-09-23 - This book has a lot of adult themes, but is so uplifting. I originally wanted to read it for my 5th grade class- glad I preread! It is a great philosophy, but too adult. I enjoyed it myself, though!
pay it forward 
2009-09-19 - I received the product Pay It Forward, in great condition and in a timely manner.
A Magical Film.
2009-08-28 - "Pay It Forward" was absolutely trashed by the critics when it came out. It was labeled as being nothing more than emotionally manipulative Oscar bait. I thought it was an unfair assessment then and I still do today.
The concept driving the story is a simple but amazing one. What would the world be like if we truly tried to better the lives of others? The acting is flawless and I'm not embarrassed to say I was moved to tears by this film.
One criticism of "Pay It Forward" I've seen made time and again over the years is that it is unrealistic. It's as if people are programmed to only accept something fantastic in over-the-top action films or sci-fi. A movie is something that should not only allow you to escape, but maybe even make you feel like being a better person after you see it.
I agree that something like this would probably never happen in the real world. But wouldn't it be wonderful if it did?
