By
Ian Caruth
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Pyramid schemes prove equally heinous in film and business
There is nothing inherently wrong with a tear-jerker.
The classical Greeks realized this, and did not hesitate to pull some heartstrings with the wrenching third-act collapse of a hero. The difference between those bygone lapidary cry-fests ("good") and TV movie-of-the-week weepers ("evil") is that the grand Greek arias of grief were articulate, sincere and archeptypal - pretty much the exact opposite of the tripe that has come to be associated with the term "tear-jerker."
Director Mimi Leder - who was responsible for one of the 90s' worst action movies with 1997's "The Peacemaker" (no easy feat, when one considers that this is the decade of "Con Air" and "Alien Resurrection") - has extended her poisonous tentacles into the cathartic arena with "Pay It Forward," an obnoxious and overt Oscar bid for its three leads.
Kevin Spacey turns in a typically first-rate performance as Mr. Simonet, a burn victim and middle school social studies teacher who really cares. The overrated Helen Hunt plays Arlene, an alcoholic single mother unable to resist her abusive ex-boyfriend, and plucky "Sixth Sense" moppet Haley Joel Osment plays Trevor, an idealistic seventh-grader who, for some reason, cannot see dead people.
Caricatures of disfigurement, addiction, abuse and homelessness are faithfully depicted - the film lacks only an eating disorder and a kitty with a skin disease to rank as the most shameless audience-manipulator in memory.
Ripping off the brilliant framing device of "Citizen Kane," "Pay It Forward" tracks irritating reporter Chris Chandler (the normally reliable Jay Mohr) in his quest to find the origin of the "Pay it forward movement," a network of good deeds and favors taking hold across the country. After a creepy rich guy gives him a new Jaguar, Mohr is instructed not to pay back his benefactor, but to "pay the favor forward to three other people." Intrigued and undoubtedly interested in making money off this perverted pyramid scheme, he begins to search for the originator of the movement.
Through cheesy flashbacks, diminutive Christ-figure Osment is revealed as the brains behind this selfless utopian trend. Inspired by Simonet's assignment to "change the world," Trevor devises a plan to do a big favor for three people, then give them a sort of Great Commission to spread word of the movement by aiding three others. Heartwarming ensues.
"Pay It Forward" treats its audience with a level of condescension not seen since the lesser works of TV-movie staple Tracey Gold. The film's ham-fisted biblical imagery borders on parodic, and the audience manipulation is truly staggering. Character development is accomplished not through nuanced dialogue or subtle interaction, but through extreme closeups of wailing actors - as though some one had held a gun to Spacey's head and commanded "Emote!"
Osment is the only lead who does not already own an Academy Award, and the film is a transparent shot at earning him one and enlarging Spacey and Hunt's collections. Osment is a capable actor, and though he seems likely to escape the hellscape of child stardom and do award-worthy adult work, he has not yet arrived as an actor.
Oscar loves the hideous and the diseased, but the film is so awash in pathos as to sabotage even this cast's greatest efforts. "Pay It Forward" may be well-acted, but it is still crap - it would be a surprise if "Pay It Forward" is ever mentioned for any awards other than the dreaded "Raspberry" for the year's biggest stinkers.
