Pay It Forward
Certainly one of the most noble stories to come out of Hollywood in sometime, Pay it Forward is the story of a young boy (beautifully played by Sixth Sense star Haley Joel Osment) who sets out to make the world a better place. Responding to a challenging assignment from his teacher (the always dependable Kevin Spacey), Osment devises the Pay it Forward plan. It's quite simple. One person does three good deeds for three different people, and rather than paying the favor back, those three recipients pay the favors forward. The film poses the question, could a plan such as this catch on and spread good will throughout the world?
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Note: This board was started based on a contest won by Tenaheff
Where Is The Pay It Forward Board?
It has been merged with the Movies & Television Board. Here are the original Threads:
Want To Pay It Forward? Source 9
Haley Joel Osment Source 8
Have You Done Any Good In The World Today? Source 5
Changing The End Source 8
Reality: Pay It Forward for Real? Source 6
My Review And Observations Source 3
Helen Hunt Source 4
As Arlene McKinney - mother of Trevor
Kevin Spacey Source 8
The Teacher
Pay It Forward Part 2? Source 5
This is an excellent movie. I cannot believe it didn't do better at the box office. Also, I am surprised it didn't win any awards.
The concept was great, but that isn't what made it good in my opinion. Did you see Helen Hunt after she got drunk? The next morning, her eye makeup and stuff. There is a woman who wasn't afraid to look her worse on the big screen. It was so ugly I laughed!
Then ending made me cry. I was there with a mix of men and women. We all had tears in our eyes!
Edited: tenaheff on 24th Jun, 2004 - 6:40pm
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If you have not seen this movie and plan to see it, please skip this post.
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After seeing the movie my fiancee was upset about how the movie ended with the the death of Osmet's character. My feeling is that it is the only way the movie could realistically end. In my mind there are only three ways to end the movie:
1. Everybody pays it forward and we end up with a utopian society.
2. Ignore the entire pay it forward project
3. Kill the kid.
Number 1 is unrealistic. Number 2 is poor writing.
Number 3 was the only way to have a real ending. It's been awhile since I seen the movie (I only saw it once) but if I remember correctly didn't they telegraph the ending?
For those that have seen it, am I right or wrong? Was there another way you think the movie could have ended satisfactorily?
O.
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Pay It Forward was the first movie I really appreciated. It was a beautiful concept and the parts played in the movies worked well with the actors. I have two copies of this movie in my house, one for each TV. It's something I watch at least once a month to remind me of the hardships we face and how we can always overcome them.
Some of us actually like the idea of a Utopian society, except that no one would learn much and personal growth would probably be stunted. Really though, I think we could all benefit from a little bit or a little more unselfish giving. I don't think the boy had to die. Why does there have to be tragedy in such a beautiful movie about giving unselfishly without any thought of receiving anything in return? (That doesn't mean that the person doesn't get anything, they gain the experience, the commitment, and the happiness from doing something like this). I love this movie. Some of the characters had drastic change in their lives from this. In the end, I cried so hard. It just didn't seem right that such an example of light and love had to die so quickly during the life changing project. I would definitely recommend seeing this movie to someone old enough to handle the death and tribute scenes.
Offtopic but, I forgot to put this movie in the thread of the movies that make me cry |
The concept was great and the movie was well made ...Although the idea seams pretty utopian I could see something like that happened in real life. It would work even in our everyday cruel word because it deals with the problems of individual .
Pay it Forward was definitely one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. The idea coming from someone so young ( innocent ) was the only reason I sat through the rest of the movie and I'm glad I did.
This ranks right up there with "A River Runs Through It", "The Game", And "Fallen"
Offtopic but, Being the manager for a local movie theatre I get to preview all the movies before they are released. Sad to say the next good movie (with harry potter 4 already released )will be the lion witch and wardrobe remake. |
Message Edited! Persephone: Added offtopic tags |