Touching and bittersweet.

This is a totally objective review. This wasn't great, fantastic moviemaking but it wasn't as bad as these critics are saying. Yes, it was a little manipulative-I can't think of a movie that wasn't. That kind of is a movie's job, it's called setting the scene. The real reason the critics ripped this movie is because they collectively don't like Helen Hunt and they knew that with an honest reveiw she likely would have gotten another Oscar nomination, so they made sure that wouldn't happen. Don't believe the hype!!… Expand

The movie is what it is; don't expect Dostoevsky! Good acting, terrible ending, but a pretty neat idea, eh? I'm trying to do one or two "random acts of kindness" every day. But, hey, I used to be a boy scout, and I don't drink or smoke...you have been warned. Love your website which I just discovered today and will visit often. Thanks and congrats!

First up, I have no idea what James B is talking about, but it doesn't seem to have much to do with this film. Second up...I hate it when people complain about movies that "manipulate the audience". All movies - all good movies - manipulate the audience. A bad movie is one that doesn't provoke any reaction whatsoever. (Also, people keep saying it about genuinely moving films such as ET, apropos of nothing, but that's another story). But here comes "Pay It Forward", which doesn't manipulate the audience so much as make balloon animals out of them. That I give it yellow rather than red is down to four individuals: the Space, HJO and Helen Hunt, all of whom give brilliant performances, all of whom are completely wasted on the material (cf the big scene between the Space and Hunt seven minutes before the end - people talk like that now?). The fourth is Mimi Leder, a talented director, who wastes one of her best days at work on a screenplay that's predictable and irritating in roughly equal measure - and then infuriating right at the end. Now, despite the fact I wouldn't wish this script on anyone, I don't want to spoil it, so I won't. But that they did THAT to THAT particular character, just so they can have that song and that bloody long-distance shot ending and that whole final five minutes is just wrong. Like the CGI deiscated kid in Beyond Borders, who was just window dressing for the romance between Clive Owen and Angelina Jolie's Lips. So on balance, I've changed my mind - it's getting red anyway. And if the book has the same ending, I ent reading it. What a waste.… Expand

It is hard to disagree with most of the hard knocks given to this movie, but I think it is strange that There Goes My Baby or Apocalypse Now are not considered manipulative or contrived by these same critics. Die Hard isn't a mendacious hunk of blubber and sentiment? Oh, yes, you guys think Ayn Rand is a philosopher AND a good novelist. Well, you would-be John Galts should check out what that hardbitten Nora Ephron has to say about your little phony idol. Pay It Forward is simplistic, and so on, but no worse than that familiar old Spencer/Hayek/Friedman/ Rand song and dance that so mists the eyes of the corporate "revolutionaries." The trouble is, concerning both, that the factitious is easy to spot in entertainment, and not so easy to recognize in current world affairs. Now eat all your market savvy!… Expand

Although containing good performances and actors, "Pay It Forward" is fragmented to the point that it breaks and the ending has no meaning and is completely out of place.

This movie had great potential. Why did they have to throw it all away on this terrible writing! The plot is fine, the message is great but the movie falls into a world of terrible writing. Spacey was, well what do you expect, great! Hunt was good at times but soemtimes pretty bad. Now ladies and gentlemen, Haley Joel Osment was great! He is one of the great young actors working today! He has never played a tough kid which he should try doing. He has real potential. I hope he doesn't throw it away.… Expand

Beautiful.

Not quite as good as the book, but the acting was fantastic.

Starting with a noble core premise, this movie proceeded to make me want to hurl.

Touching, inspiring, filled with amazing performances. Excellent direction and script. Pulls off a stunningly bravado ending with guts.

Beware of pyramid schemes!!

Sorry for the translation With the permission of the director, Mimi Leder, enter Class Trevor, as auditors of course. The lesson has already begun.
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