thinker1691 Review of Pay It Forward

Pay It Forward (2000)

" Knowing the right thing is easy, doing the right thing is a bit harder "

[7/10 · 19 January 2010]

The world is a pretty awful place if one sees only the bad which is usually all around us. Occasionally when there is a disaster, people from all walks of life, suddenly forget who they are and step forward to help out and for a moment, the world becomes a place where all mankind can share in that one brief pause, called Humanity. This is one such film. It's called " Pay it Forward. " The name strikes an immediate note of confusion at first, until one thinks about it. Too often when someone does a good deed, most of us feel we should try and Pay it back. This is the original concept, except in the film a young student named Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment) designed it so a person who receives a favor, is then told to pay it forwards to three other people. The idea first began as a school assignment given by his teacher Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey) and encouraged by the boy's mother Arlene. (Helen Hunt) It is not that often when such a simple idea can have such a profound effect and reminds the rest of us, that simplicity is the key to our basic nature. With two academy award winners in the forefront of this film, I fail to see how it was not nominated for an award of some magnitude. ****