Pay It Forward Reviews

The concept of the story is brilliant. It's become such a saying now to 'pay it forward' but I'm not sure if it even originated from this movie. The concept was told in a terrific way and really captured the ripple effect. Some viewers might not like this (being cynics), but I love it.

Here we have a kid who was is doing his best to change the world while the adults who initially encouraged him to are ultimately the ones holding him back. I cried the first time I watched it, and though I didn't cry during the second time, I could really feel the emotions emitting from the screen. I was actually suppressing my laughter during the climactic scene because I was waiting to see if my guy friend would cry (he didn't), but the bubble of laughter died away really quickly and gave way to sadness. The family dynamics as well as the interactions with his teacher was so well executed and detailed that it just brought the whole film together.

To me this film is near flawless because I love it so much.

After watching this film I just remembered the quote from 'Sullivan's Travels' which says 'film's the greatest educational medium the world has ever known'. Indeed, cinema's for entertainment as well acts as a message deliverer. This was an inspirational movie, and everybody must see it. I know I'm a bit late to see it, better late than never, right? I'm really glad for having it at the right time because 15 years ago I did not have this blog to write about it.

OK, the name of the movie represents the theme of the story. No matter its a developed or developing country, society needs something like the idea this movie talks about. Carrying a good social message, the movie slightly lags behind the too much on the emotions, especially the end part. There won't be a problem if you like melodrama. Other than that, I feel the conclusion was smart and strong, a better solution which would appeal for certain group rather alternate finale.

The film was based on the novel of the same name, crafted by a fine director with the wonderful cast. Haley Joel Osment had a great career as a child-star, you should check some of his films if you love children's movies including this title on the top of that list. As a middle aged actor, Helen Hunt's one of the last best performances before turning into a senior artist. It's not a usual role for Kevin Spacey, but he nailed it with the good dialogues. Especially his talk about the topic 'child abuse' was a great thing from the movie. Overall, the actors get more credit for the first- class acts as the script demanded for their respective roles.

What did you ever do to change the world.

A movie about a man who achieved in science gets the Oscar, not that real man. A movie about a man escapes from the war prison camp and slavery gets the award, and again none of those real persons. But a movie with the original, intelligent, inspiring, specially designed for a movie was not even a contender of the Oscars. Of course, it was transformed from a book, though there are/were no real people behind these great characters, all are imagined/created for the book and the movie. I never understood the American Academy Awards.

By now you would know that I hate critics badly if you are a regular reader of my blog. Once again they failed to recognise how great the morality of the story is, rather they have concentrated to criticise the writing and the technical aspect of the film. Although, it was not a box office flop or earned beyond, but got a lot of praise from the families. It's a wonderful family drama, but still too far from being a masterpiece. Intelligent enough one to get motivated towards the social issues. Being practical in the real world is a concern as it is risky, depending on the situation and the person, just like this movie's ending. Rare to find a movie like this, you must check it out.

8/10

Right after ‘The Sixth Sense’, Haley Joel Osment became really popular and he was hailed as the next best thing but, unfortunately, it lasted only 2 short years and his career is already pretty much done nowadays. Basically, even though the guy was pretty cute as a kid, puberty was rather merciless on the guy (I know, it is something really mean to say but, seriously, you should check his recent pictures). Anyway, right after ‘The Sixth Sense’, when Haley Joel Osment was still pretty hot, he made this feature which has gathered a rather decent following. To be honest, I thought it was not bad at all, there was indeed a decent cast (Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, Haley Joel Osment, Jim Caviezel, Jon Bon Jovi) and the whole concept definitely had some potential but, to be honest, I wasn’t exactly blown away. I don’t know, I’m just too cynical, maybe we should all follow this concept but I didn’t buy it. To put it simply, human beings don’t work like that. I mean, it is not that we are utterly evil or something, but the most of us are rather self-centered, selfish and just plain lazy most of the time. Still, in spite its flaws and gullibility, it remains a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look.