Pay It Forward (2000)

I should also mention, I kind of knew the director, Mimi Leder, and was excited for the movie to come out. Fortunately, I never had the opportunity to see and speak with her soon after. Or maybe I did and avoided it. I can't remember now.

Also, I love how the reviewer shades Kevin Spacey. This was 20 years ago, when most knew nothing about his illicit personal life.

Where’s the review?

R3 ...it's linked. I just hit it again. It came right up....

Review: This unceasingly manipulative entertainment, in which Haley Joel Osment plays a bird-boned secular saint, may honestly be intended as a spiritual experience for people who are bored by the same-old, same-old religious and ethical concepts of decency, generosity, and good deeds. What it is, though, is reprehensible — not only for trotting out the most shameless cliches of emotional and physical damage since the old daytime-TV misery contest Queen for a Day, but for then blackmailing audiences into joining the let’s-be-nice ”movement,” as if in penance for the sin of critics’ heartless skepticism.

(I’ll calm down now, but not before I say this: Pay It Forward gladhands so brazenly — for awards, for publicity, for love — that although the press materials request critical collusion in not revealing the ending, I am going to reveal the ending. Later. In my own contribution toward paying it forward, however, I’ll give fair warning before the spoiler.)

So. For those who think ”a thousand points of light” is so one George Bush generation ago, or who don’t know from mitzvahs and Maimonides’ Eight Degrees of Charity, Trevor McKinney (Osment) has a cool new plan: Do something for somebody who needs something but can’t do it himself. Then help two others. Then each of those three should help three more. And so on. And so on. Pretty soon everyone will be swaying to ”We Are the World.”

This is a breakthrough idea only if the do-gooder is 11 years old, with an absent, alcoholic, abusive father (Jon Bon Jovi) and a mom, Arlene (Helen Hunt), who works as a dolled-up waitress at a Las Vegas topless joint, then hits the bottle, dingy drunk, during off-hours. Young Trevor, with Osment’s vulnerable shoulder blades and squooshable face of sad patience, could use a moral road map to rescue him from feelings of powerlessness, and when his new seventh-grade social studies teacher, Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey), exhorts the class to think of an idea to change the world, then put it into effect, Trevor is enflamed by the possibilities. (Flames, sorry, bad word: Eugene bears the angry, over-smooth scars of fire damage — the cause, you can be sure, is deeply tragic. And with his face streaked and plasticized so that it looks spin-dried, Spacey putties over most of his own more interesting, actorly sharp edges.) ...

Pay It Forward uses the chain-letter approach to forward the plot as well as to spread the good karma. Trevor’s virtuous kindness affects Arlene, who affects Eugene; others sucker-punched by an angel include Las Vegas’ most polite drug addict (James Caviezel), an aggressive journalist gentled by a stranger’s gift of a new Jaguar (Jay Mohr), and an old bag lady more hippie than hapless (Angie Dickinson!). Meanwhile, working from a clean script by Leslie Dixon (1999’s The Thomas Crown Affair) that does what it can with the muck of the novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde on which it’s based, director Mimi Leder (Deep Impact) pushes and pushes and pushes the emotional throttle without respite. The movie is hustled not only forward but also into overdrive, especially during Helen Hunt’s high-pitched Lost Weekend scenes and codas of remorse. Badly bleached ”waitress hair” and Julia Roberts’ cast-off cleavage-popping Erin Brockovich wardrobe bring out the actress’ shriller instincts, and when a forlorn Trevor yells at a pickled Arlene, ”I hate the way you are, I hate that you’re my mother!” Hunt goes near apoplectic with Motivation, first slapping the kid, then covering her mouth in movie-style horror.

WARNING: BIG SPOILER COMING ONE LITTLE PARAGRAPH FROM NOW.

And then, at the end, something heinous happens to defeat even the softest of touches, the happiest of sobbers. STOP RIGHT NOW, FOR GOD’S SAKE STOP IF YOU VALUE SURPRISE OVER ANALYSIS. STOP IF YOU ARE HAPPIER BELIEVING CRITICS ARE CYNICS THAN THAT SOME MOVIES CYNICALLY TRY TO SELL MELODRAMATIC PAP.

Trevor dies. He’s doing his third good deed, and he’s knifed. By another kid. Do you see? Do you see how dangerous it is to be decent in this lousy world? And yet look how inspiring it is for a child to die, because his martyrdom makes the Jaguar-driving journalist’s story — the one about the Las Vegas boy who walks in the path of righteousness — even newsier. Pretty soon strangers are leaving mounds of flowers, à la Princess Diana, at Arlene’s modest waitress-wage home! They’re lighting candles! They’re feeling cleansed in the blood of the lamb! Haley Joel Osment died for our sins!

Well, that and for Oscar consideration.

Rating: D

This movie managed to make Las Vegas look incredibly washed out and depressing. I've been there twice and it didn't look that bad. This movie makes it look like Skid Row in LA.

Did Kevin try to come onto to the kid in the film?

Devastating review for sure, but Schwarzbaum takes too long to scathe. My all-time favorite nuclear review will always be David Denby's review of The Pelican Brief in New York Magazine:

"The Turkey Long"

The critic gave away the goddamn ending!!!

And so did R6!

R9, that seems inspired by an old theatre review of Dorothy Parker's: "The House Beautiful is, for me, the play lousy."

This Had Oscar Buzz podcast covered this as their third episode (out of a current 139 episodes!).

Worth a listen if you just enjoy hanging with a couple of gay guys.

This is beautiful:

[quote]Osment’s vulnerable shoulder blades and squooshable face of sad patience

EW was basically the [italic]Friends[/italic] fan club newsletter when it was on the air, and they are TQ+ enablers today. I wouldn't line a bird cage with it!

I remember when this movie came out - I was a teen and had no desire to see it. My father sent the dvd that Christmas (maybe?) and THAT put this movie at the top of my I WILL NEVER WATCH THAT MOVIE List. Yes, I am immature. But, the thought of that asshole trying to shame me via dvd into forgiveness was too much.

He is an asshole and if an asshole thinks this movie is amazing then this is a movie for assholes.

Fuck this film! 🖕🏻

Yet, R12, still not as good as Parker's reaction to Isherwood's I Am a Camera: "Me no Leica".

Barbara Grizzutti Harrison's surgical dismemberment of Joan Didion.

I can’t even mention the name of the game at coffee shops for buying other people’s orders without this SHITTY FUCKING OP STEALING THE NAME FOR ANOTHER GODDAMN COPYCAT THREAD!!!!

Scroll down to R18 in the “Weird guy at Coffee Bean” thread to see where this thread’s OP bit and plagiarized the idea for this thread, BECAUSE THAT’S HOW FUCKING CREATIVELY BANKRUPT the fucking OP is.

I’m starting to believe Muriel is the Copycat Thread Thief.

Who else lives on this site 24/7 and tries to keep people talking about the same, tired topics ad nauseam because she’s too cheap to hire writers?

At any rate, the OP is mentally ill, sociopathic and devoid of talent and taste. They should be banned for the constant plagiarism, cyberstalking and redundant threads.

F&F

Dear Lord, r19. There are no original ideas, only new ways of experiencing them.

I despise the emotional manipulation.

R19. OP here. I had not seen the Weird Guy at Coffee Bean Thread. I just now looked thru it. Very entertaining. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. :):)

I was actually inspired by something I read in the Marcia Gay Harden thread. I can't quite recall now, but it was a reference to some nasty but funny review in regards to Judi Dench. Too obscure a reference to mention in my intro for this this thread. But something in the reply made me think of this review, which I googled and it immediately appeared. So I decided to share it. Really just that simple. I'm sorry it ignited such scorn and hatred within you. Not my intention. I hope it helped expelling whatever poison has been seeped within your inner being for so long.

But that is what paying it forward is all about. Is it not??

Anyone else remember the part with the creepy guy in the bus station? That was weird.

Bump

Even the name of the film is cringeworthy to the point where I will not speak it out loud. It's the cinematic equivalent of one of those plastic-covered motivational posters you buy at the mall.

Didn't this movie basically ruin Haley Joel Osment's career? I don't remember him doing anything much after that. The only other thing I remember about this movie is a bit in Liz Smith's column that strongly hinted Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt were...INVOLVED with each other.

How big a role did the divine Angie Dickinson have in this film?

All I ever remember this for is the movie with Angie Dickinson plays a homeless person or something and Hayley Joel is shanked to death. Kinda sounds like it should be fun.

I saw the film years ago while traveling in a bus. It wasn't the most ideal viewing experience but I remember liking the idea of paying good deeds forward. For what it's worth at least the film is so memorable that I remember being touched by it like two decades later.

I watched this movie with a friend in Garden Grove, I drove down to see him. I had a horrible time Visiting & it was a bad film, bad times all around.

There were a lot of nasty-brilliant reviews from that era about 20 years ago.

I honestly feel like this pandemic has made me realize how infinitely shitty many movies are, past and present. Same for TV shows. I hardly watch anything anymore. Not sure if it’s the glut of crap cinema and TV programming or what, but most things I start watching I don’t even finish .

[quote] Didn't this movie basically ruin Haley Joel Osment's career?

No. His career ended when he cried and pouted after not winning the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in the Sixth Sense. He clearly wasn't coached on how to maintain composure when your name isn't announced as the winner.

"His career ended when he cried and pouted after not winning the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in the Sixth Sense. "

I heard he cried when he didn't win the Golden Globe (I think Tom Cruise) won but I didn't here he "cried and pouted" after not winning the Oscar. So what if he did? He was a kid; it's not like he was an adult doing that. By the way, he was more deserving of the Oscar than the winner Michael Caine. I don't think Caine deserved either of his Oscars.

[quote] So what if he did? He was a kid

I said he wasn't coached. If he was capable of acting and being in movies he should have been capable of keeping a game face when not winning. So shut up.

[quote] Didn't this movie basically ruin Haley Joel Osment's career?

Child stars rarely maintain their successful career as they grow up. Especially those who end up not that handsome or pretty are easily forgotten and get only bit parts. Osment reminds me of that boy from Kate and Allie.

Ahem!

Bateman was all washed up until Arrested Development. And he grew up to be good looking.

Osment's role in The Boys is pretty funny.

I didn't want to see this nonsense when I learned they whitewashed Kevin Spacey's character. The book's character was a Black man.

"Didn't this movie basically ruin Haley Joel Osment's career?"

No - getting old and fat ruined it.

Osment was an adorable kid, but grew up to look awkward for awhile. If he lost a little weight these days, he might be kinda cute.

" If he was capable of acting and being in movies he should have been capable of keeping a game face when not winning. So shut up."

He was an actor but he was also a CHILD, you dumb cluck. You seem to think that because he was an actor he should have been "coached" on how to fake genuine emotion at award shows. Instead he reacted normally, as child would. I guess that bothers you. Maybe you should talk to somebody about it.

Bump

Brokeback Mountain.

I actually liked "Pay It Forward" (I think I saw it on a plane coming back from Europe)

This was one of those movies that aired frequently on basic cable up until Spacey's scandal finally broke.

R25, it's so unfortunate that the phrase "pay it forward" is still commonly recognized, although I'm not 100 percent sure it's correctly used. I hear people always saying, "Oh yeah, I'm gonna pay it forward and go help out such-and-such." Just like "the perfect storm." At this point, it's no longer used to mean weather, it just means when something is fortuitous/works to your advantage.

The phrase lives on and on- but who remembers Lisa Schwarzbaum?

i remember the terrible EW review. I also remember loving the movie. They did run sneak previews for this, which means they thought word of mouth would help. It's good for what it is. But it does veer into Touched by an Angel dramatic territory. Either that works for you or it doesnt. That doesn't make it bad and the talent involved is exceptional.

I always confuse it with that Clint Eastwood get off my lawn movie. I hate those feel good garbage feats.

I remember going to the theater to see this. This is when Kevin Spacey was really big. Before we found out what a piece of garbage he is. It’s a depressing movie. And the ending is absolutely horrid. And Bon Jovi as the ex-husband. 🤢🤢👎

[quote]I didn't want to see this nonsense when I learned they whitewashed Kevin Spacey's character. The book's character was a Black man.

I also recall articles that mentioned that.

That and "Pax" pretty much ended his leading man roles. After that it was character parts, supporting roles and TV.

R47, "perfect storm" has always been a metaphor for alignment of factors that produce a mega result. It's just that a movie used the term literally.

A few years ago in a span of a couple weeks I had few instances where a driver in front of me in a drive-thru paid for my order. Pay-it-forward worked out well for me!

Bump

Heart warming do-gooder movies. I 𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆 heart warming do-gooder movies.

I really don't get the love for LOVE, ACTUALLY. I cringed my way through it and never wanted to see it again. The bit where widower Liam Neeson and his son re-enacted the "I'm flying!" scene from TITANIC was the worst!

As for reviews, one of my favorites was Roger Ebert's review of 1994's NORTH:

[quote]I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie. Hated it. Hated every simpering stupid vacant audience-insulting moment of it. Hated the sensibility that thought anyone would like it. Hated the implied insult to the audience by its belief that anyone would be entertained by it.

[quote] Screenwriter Alan Zweibel's son attended school with the son of Hollywood "superagent" Michael Ovitz. One day, the two got into a verbal altercation in which Ovitz's son said, as an insult "your dad wrote 'North'!" Zweibel was happy to learn his son responded with "at least people like my father!"

OP requested comments on "maudlin movies others love that you despise." Here's mine.

Four years ago a friend of mine asked me to join him at the theater to see a movie that he was excited about. He said, "This movie is supposed to be great. It's going to win a lot of awards." I hadn't heard anything about it, but I was willing to give it a try because he is a good friend and he loves movies.

When we walked into the theater it was practically empty. By the time the movie started, there were maybe eight people total. I don't know how long the movie was, but it seemed endless. It was about some lonely jerk whose brother dies and then he has to take care of his nephew. From my point of view, there was not a single likable or relatable character in the entire movie. I did not care about any of them. I was so tempted to look at my phone to see what time it was, but of course my friend would have noticed that. So I did my best to stay awake, and it was a struggle. By the end of the movie, I felt jealous of the brother who died. That's how bad and boring this movie was.

After it was over my friend asked me what I thought. I said, "Great performances by the actors." Then I changed the subject because I HATED THIS MOVIE and I wanted those two hours of my life back.

R60 I LOVED Manchester by the Sea. But, ya know, I guess it ain't for everybody.

Even if you liked Pay It Forward when it came out, how can you watch it now with that Kevin Spacey performance? Knowing what we know now? It's really creepy and ads a completely unexpected element. I wonder if they could refilm scenes with a different actor and edit them in to replace Spacey like they did with Christopher Plummer in All the Money in the World?

R19 No, Mary! It can't be! 'I’m starting to believe Muriel is the Copycat Thread Thief." No, say it ain't so Muriel!

I actually did like the movie overall, but the ending was so fucking depressing

Kevin is wonderful in the film. I love the film but would have loved it more if Harvey had produced it. Kevin & Harvey are such heroes of mine.