Don’t call me a cynic simply because this unlikely story made me roll my eyes so far I think I saw some memories of a previous life.
Haley Joel Osment, fresh from his Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for The Sixth Sense, plays Trevor, a cherubic Las Vegas seventh grader. His social studies teacher Eugene (Kevin Spacey, fresh from his American Beauty Oscar) offers on the first day of school the rhetorical challenge to all his students to “come up with an idea to change our world – and put it into action.” So Trev decides to do an especially difficult favor for three people, hopefully encouraging them each to help three others in turn. 1) He adopts a homeless heroine addict (Jim Caviezel), much to the chagrin of his gorgeous culturally-challenged alcoholic waitress mom (Oscar winner Helen Hunt, fresh from turning 37 and making it look like the ideal age for women). 2) He sets up lonely, burn-scarred, hyperliterate Eugene with his gorgeous culturally-challenged alcoholic waitress mom…which will hopefully have the added benefit of keeping away Trevor’s gorgeous culturally-challenged alcoholic drifter dad (Jon Bon Jovi, fresh from – I don’t know, a new CD or something). And 3) he tries to keep a classmate from regularly getting beat up after school.
Now, which one of these acts, based on their respective levels of likelihood and potential for disaster, do you think will lead to the manipulative, unforgivable tear-jerk ending? Have you ever let a heroine addict sleep in your garage? Do you know anyone who ever found true love thanks to the Parent Trap scheming of an adolescent child (especially one who whispers so much you want to yell “Will you speak up, fer cryin’ out loud!”)? On the other hand, you probably took sides in a playground skirmish at least once or twice, right?
Directed by Mimi Leder (Deep Impact), and featuring an insistent, ultimately nerve-wracking piano-driven score by American Beauty composer Thomas Newman, Pay It Forward seems to be set in Vegas strictly to provide an incongruous alien-looking pyramid in the background for a few shots. And it’s not too far from L.A., where a reporter (Jay Mohr) miraculously gets wind of Trev’s rapidly spreading campaign, then comes seeking its source.
Some of the people involved in making this movie have gone on record as saying they think it could actually start such a Be Nice movement. So I’ll do my part by suggesting you all save your money and go see something else this week. C-
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