# Pay It Forward (2000)

### reviewed by
Scott Renshaw

PAY IT FORWARD (Warner Bros.) Starring: Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, Haley Joel Osment, Jay Mohr, James Caviezel, Jon Bon Jovi, Angie Dickinson. Screenplay: Leslie Dixon, based on the novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde. Producers: Peter Abrams, Robert Levy and Steven Reuther. Director: Mimi Leder. MPAA Rating: PG-13 (profanity, adult themes, drug use, violence) Running Time: 122 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.

When I finished reading Catherine Ryan Hyde's novel PAY IT FORWARD, one simple thought occurred to me: "Someone's going to have to screw up big time to keep this from being a real crowd-pleaser." It was far from clear that PAY IT FORWARD would make for a great film; there were a lot of plot threads to condense, and a definite danger of Pollyanna overkill. But there was something primally satisfying about the whole idea of it, and a kicker of a finale that was a true tear-jerker on the page. Great, not necessarily; hanky-wringing and applause-inducing, most definitely.

Maybe a fable like PAY IT FORWARD could only have worked on the page. More likely, maybe it only could have worked with a director who knew how to tell an inherently emotional story with some degree of subtlety. Mimi Leder utterly botches this tale of a middle school student named Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment) inspired by his social studies teacher Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey) to develop a unique plan of altruism. Trevor devises a sort of human chain letter of good deeds: He will help three people with something big, then request that his beneficiaries in turn "pay it forward" to three more people each. His classmates scoff at his optimism, but Eugene is intrigued by Trevor's idea. He also finds himself a part of the plan when he becomes one of Trevor's good deeds, as Trevor attempts to fix him up with his alcoholic mother Arlene (Helen Hunt).

Much has been made of the fact that the Kevin Spacey character was African-American in the novel, but PAY IT FORWARD isn't ineffective because it's not faithful enough. Indeed, screenwriter Leslie Dixon comes up with an effective alternative back story for the scars Eugene bears, and she creatively weaves the sub-plot involving a reporter (Jay Mohr) chasing down the origin of the Pay It Forward "movement" into the main plot. There are quite a few things to like about the film, from Helen Hunt's willingness to look positively ghastly, to the use of the Las Vegas setting. And of course there's Kevin Spacey, who can always be counted on to dazzle even when the material is less than stellar. He's a fascinating screen performer, and here he gets at the hope buried in a bitter man.

That's what Spacey can do even when a director seems to be working against him. Leder excelled as a small screen director for "E.R.," but in PAY IT FORWARD, as in DEEP IMPACT, she once again misses every opportunity to make the film about more than its concept. Granted, Dixon's script is better with individual moments than it is at building a narrative, but Leder makes a flawed script even worse. Every shot involving a human face involves a close-up so intense you can count pores; supporting characters -- notably Jon Bon Jovi as Trevor's absentee dad -- aren't given a chance to develop beyond a single note. Her biggest blunders are saved for one of PAY IT FORWARD's most intense scenes, in which Eugene bares his soul to Arlene regarding his own past. Leder's editing choices rob the moment of all its power, including pointless cutaway's to Hunt's reaction shots. Every time a scene calls for finding a core of emotional honesty, Leder opts instead to convey sincerity by blowing up Haley Joel Osment's head to the size of a dirigible and letting the tears roll down his pouting face.

Plenty of opponents of PAY IT FORWARD will probably fixate on the film's final shot, which borrows blatantly from another feel-good film that shall remain nameless. Once again, the problem isn't that it differs from the novel's climax; it isn't even that it's familiar from another film. The problem is that it's simply a movie moment, one that ignores that the payoff in PAY IT FORWARD should be the success or failure of Trevor's idea. It's manipulative and overwrought, but the real issue is that it's not organic to the story. Leder spends two hours grasping for how to tell this story visually, and almost never comes up with the appropriate choice. PAY IT FORWARD is still bound to leave some viewers thinking they've seen a good film, just because it leaves them a little teary-eyed. I doubt many of them will feel any resonance from those tears 24 hours later. Congratulations, Mimi Leder, with assistance from Leslie Dixon. You managed to screw it up big time.

         On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 forward passives:  5.

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