Welcome to junior high, the beginning and the end of your life. Junior high is something to be survived. It is not fun, but guaranteed to be challenging. You are guaranteed to look, act and be a dork until you enter that magical place of high schooldom. Welcome to seventh grade social studies, my name is Eugene Simonet and I’m about to change your life.
In the new Warner Brothers release, Pay It Forward, director Mimi Leder does just that, but she manages to change your life in the cinematic time limit instead of a nine month school year. Through the charming story of a young man’s efforts to make the world “not so sucky,” Leder and the Oscar-winning cast tunes the emotional strings that support our hearts.
Helen Hunt, Kevin Spacey and Haley Joel Osment combine their talents to show how a simple extra credit assignment can challenge the cosmos and put the world back on track. Osment returns to the extraordinary intellect role as Trevor McKinney primed to delight Six Sense fans, while 2000 Academy-Award winner Spacey plays the role of Trevor’s emotionally and physically burned teacher. To add to the distraught-on-the-verge-of-an-emotional-breakdown personality theme amongst the characters, Helen Hunt takes on the role of Trevor’s alcoholic, single mom.
The assignment is simply written in white chalk on an A-typical classroom chalkboard, but, as expected on the silver screen is anything but. “Think of something to change the world and put it into action.” Of course, Trevor cannot be satisfied by starting up a recycling club or writing a congressman like his fellow classmates. He was destined the moment the script writers put the first dialogue down on paper to rise above and beyond the call of duty. After watching Trevor cruise around on his bike past the homeless camps and the unemployed workline, pay it forward is born. Again, the concept is simple, help three people by doing something significant for them, in a sense, a big favor. According to Trevor, the favor has got to be something big and something hard to do, not just making your mother breakfast in bed. This kid is after a life altering act of kindness. The catch is instead of returning the favor, you pay it forward to three other people, who each pay it forward to three more people. Exponentially, the movement grows until the world doesn’t suck as much.
Trevor feeds a homeless guy, helps his mother find love and keeps a friend from getting beat up at school. Big deal, right? When a story-hungry reporter receives a Jaguar because of pay it forward, you’d better believe it.
The story unfolds from both ends as the mastermind of 11 year-old puts the concept in motion and a reporter investigates his large anonymous gift. At times the editing gets confusing, but the concept works well do develop the irony and the extreme faith Trevor puts in the good of humankind.
While it could be argued that the plot gets a bit overemotional and cheesy, just take a bottle of wine along and make the best of things. B+
