A pity... Pay It Forward has a great premise: take the concept of a pyramid scheme (a la Amway) but make it about giving away favors. Unfortunately, that's all the movie has going for it. I happened to read the book the movie is based on about a year ago and I thought that there was something there, somewhere, for a great movie. But the book just didn't work. It was a group of emotional and personal stories of people (great), until the third act, where the book became too "literary" and just drifted into complete fantasy. Also, there were a huge number of Disney elements (strange random events) in it that just wouldn't be believable in a movie. Therefore, when I found out that a movie was already in the works, I was certainly curious to see how many of the problems of the book would be resolved. I was even more curious to learn about the casting of Spacey, Osmond and Hunt. Unfortunately, the movie is as much -or more- a disappointment as the book is. At some times, it seems nobody read the book, which leads to some good and bad things. First the bad ones: - The main character of Reuben St.Clair (Trevor's teacher), was changed from a one-eye African American Vietnam -with a frightening and repulsive face-, to Eugene Simonet, a Caucasian teacher with a past history of child abuse and with a makeup that is neither scary nor repulsive. Sure, with that, you get Kevin Spacey to play it and he does a good job, but this was a role for Denzel Washington, Lawrence Fishburne, Sidney Poitier, or any other great black actor. I'm surprised noone has complained about this. - Unlike the book, here there are in total FOUR characters with alcoholic problems in the movie, which is too much. There's also TWO homeless characters, one of which is absolutely ridiculous (come on, would you let your old MOTHER be homeless?). - The beautiful story (in the book) of the old neighboring lady here is changed for the grandmother of Trevor. And you just can see the big hole in the script how this has nothing to do with Trevor's Pay It Forward plan. - The 'movement' of Pay It Forward is not seen as something taking over the world, but barely effecting one or two cities (and how this happens is confusing at best). This makes the ending and the final scene have no emotional significance. - The reporter. He is never given a good character arc as in the book and he is almost redundant. The casting of Jay Mohr (who, since 'Jerry Macguire' plays unsympathethic characters) was a great choice, but only if you brought him from being a despicable figure looking for a prize story to actually caring. - The reason for the teacher's burns.
The good changes: - The change of location to Las Vegas. It makes a much more visual setting and there's a great irony of having something extremely good come out of what is usually considered a city of sin. - The mystery surrounding the burns of the teacher. - The school violence. While this event is still heavily handed, the setup, hints and conclusion are way more plausible than what was in the book. - Some of the dialogues -since the book had no memorable ones. Although they are uneven, and almost seem to have been written by two completely people: one in tune with the material and another one not at all.
Pay It Forward is a very uneven movie and that is why the criticism will vary so much. Although I was hooked for the first 20 to 30 minutes, I started glancing at my watch by the end. There are some great scenes: the Kevin Spacey monologue introducing himself to the class, the fight between mother and son, the silent dinner eating cereals with the homeless man, the love making scene and its aftermath, etc. However, there are also some horrible ones: the revelation of Eugene's burns, Eugene and Trevor's talk on the benches and after class, all the scenes with the character of Angie Dickinson, etc. The score is very unoriginal and almost a copy of the one in American Beauty. The cinematography is competent and sometimes even beautiful during some high school scenes. Haley Joel Osment, once again, performs miraculously well while Spacey and Hunt do a decent job, but not a great one. In summary, this is a movie that would be worth doing a hopefully better remake several years from now.