PAY IT FORWARD(2000)
The plug line for this film is "Can an idea change the world?"
The answer is still open for debate, however the idea of, instead
of paying someone back for something nice done for you, you
pay it back to 3 other people instead! It's a very moving story,
a good watch once! B
From Amazon.com:
An embarrassingly ham-handed fable about doing good deeds,
but worth seeing for Helen Hunt's first-rate performance as an
alcoholic Las Vegas cocktail waitress and single mother-a woman
with lousy judgment who wants to do the right thing but doesn't
know how. As a classroom exercise, her son Trevor (Haley Joel
Osment) devises the scheme of "pay it forward"-performing
a gratuitous act of kindness for three people and then insisting
that they do the same for three others. Trevor helps strangers,
but, playing Cupid, he's more eager to help his mother meet
his teacher (Kevin Spacey). It's a rum role for Spacey, who
sacrifices his aura of malevolence by delivering an unconvincing,
weepy confession fit for a TV movie. Written by Leslie Dixon,
from Catherine Ryan Hyde's novel, and directed by Mimi
Leder. -David Denby