Did Helen Hunt really win an Oscar not too long ago? I think she's fallen into the Cuba Gooding Jr. trap of reprising the Oscar-winning performance over and over, not seeming to notice that the first movie has ended. If she plays one more struggling single mom with a heart of gold, I'm going to have to add her to the short list of Actors To Avoid At All Costs (which currently includes Robin Williams, Melanie Griffith, Freddie Prinze Jr., and Whoopi Goldberg). It's a drastic step to take, Ms. Hunt...please don't make me do it.
"Pay It Forward" is a relentlessly manipulative, mawkish soap opera. Everything about it is unrealistic, from guzzling vodka straight from a bottle hidden in the light fixture (doesn't it get hot?), to high-security schools with metal detectors that don't have any security guards to intervene when kids are being beaten, from a Hollywood-style homeless-people landscape of burning trash barrels and shuffling winos, to a "Field of Dreams"-like line of thousands of car headlights making a pilgrimage toward a suburban house (where will they all park?).
I didn't believe anything about this movie, not for a second. But I tried...I really WANTED to believe in the "pay it forward" idea, in the inherent altruism of man. But "Pay It Forward" kept reminding me that it's not the concept that matters, but the ability of the marketing people can try to pack fannies into theater seats. Put together a few off-the-shelf plot ideas--a kid plays matchmaker, emotionally damaged adults find love, bullies threaten the nice kids, alcohol is evil--and wait for the box office receipts to roll in.
How easy is it to track down a homeless person in another city, based on a vague description given by a stranger? How often do kids get killed in YOUR school? Did Mom get fired from her job that required her to wear the blue wig at the beginning of the movie, or was her I-just-found-a-new-job scene left on the cutting room floor? Isn't it convenient that Jon Bon Jovi shows up at exactly the time the plot requires a relationship crisis?
"Pay It Forward" is a bad, bad movie. Give it a wide berth.
"Pay It Forward" is a relentlessly manipulative, mawkish soap opera. Everything about it is unrealistic, from guzzling vodka straight from a bottle hidden in the light fixture (doesn't it get hot?), to high-security schools with metal detectors that don't have any security guards to intervene when kids are being beaten, from a Hollywood-style homeless-people landscape of burning trash barrels and shuffling winos, to a "Field of Dreams"-like line of thousands of car headlights making a pilgrimage toward a suburban house (where will they all park?).
I didn't believe anything about this movie, not for a second. But I tried...I really WANTED to believe in the "pay it forward" idea, in the inherent altruism of man. But "Pay It Forward" kept reminding me that it's not the concept that matters, but the ability of the marketing people can try to pack fannies into theater seats. Put together a few off-the-shelf plot ideas--a kid plays matchmaker, emotionally damaged adults find love, bullies threaten the nice kids, alcohol is evil--and wait for the box office receipts to roll in.
How easy is it to track down a homeless person in another city, based on a vague description given by a stranger? How often do kids get killed in YOUR school? Did Mom get fired from her job that required her to wear the blue wig at the beginning of the movie, or was her I-just-found-a-new-job scene left on the cutting room floor? Isn't it convenient that Jon Bon Jovi shows up at exactly the time the plot requires a relationship crisis?
"Pay It Forward" is a bad, bad movie. Give it a wide berth.