My Darling Hubby was on holiday last week so we decided to get caught up on our viewing. There really was a lack of watchable stuff on at our local fleapit so we decided on ’’Pay It Forward’’, I wanted to watch it because it looked really good, DH because it has Helen Hunt in it!! Ahh well, we can’t all be blonde and haggard looking can we? (Ooohh get those claws out!!)
To get back to the movie, ’’Pay It Forward’’ far exceeded my expectations. I thought it was going to be a romantic comedy, you know, quite light and feelgoody. It’s actually a drama and although it has funny moments, it is quite dark. Yet I left the cinema feeling uplifted and absurdly inspired!
It stars Kevin Spacey as Eugene, a hideously burned school teacher of Social Studies. At the start of the year, he gives his class an assignment to make the world a better place. Immense assignment, yes, but the idea is to get them to focus on being better people, helping others and all that kinda boyscouty stuff. However, one of his students, Trevor, played by Hayley Joel Osment, comes up with the inspired idea of paying it forward. Trevor has an alcoholic mother (Hunt) and not the happiest homelife, and his idea is to help three people in a big way. He decides to get a homeless guy off the streets by giving him his life savings; then he gets his mother and Eugene together romantically, then he tries to stop the bullies beating up his best friend. This is where is idea is inspired...for each of the three people he helps have to help three people themselves and so on.
Against this, we also have a subplot of Jay Mohr playing a reporter tracking the story of Pay It Forward four months after the above idea was formulated. This part of the story is kinda hard to follow as the plot with Eugene, Trevor and Arlene is happening 4 months previously to our intrepid reporter discovering the phenomenon.
’’Pay It Forward’’ is gorgeous to watch, exquisitely acted and beautifully crafted. The idea is inspiring and just imagine what the world would be like if we all adopted it. I will if you will.....