| 75 |
Boston Globe
The kind of film you've got to admire simply for the way it squares its shoulders and plunges into a message of unfashionable idealism.
|
| 75 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Another gutsy, big-budget movie that dares to say something new and optimistic about our messed-up times. And it almost, but not quite, brings it off.
|
| 70 |
Variety
An unusual film that intelligently avoids numerous potential pitfalls even if its central earnestness is ultimately inescapable.
|
| 70 |
Los Angeles Times
The combination of restrained writing and direction and top-of-the-line acting is enough to make even confirmed agnostics want to believe in this unashamed fairy tale.
|
| 70 |
Dallas Observer
Heavy-handed, saccharine message somehow goes down good.
|
| 63 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
It's a pretty nice movie until, like a Ponzi plan, it collapses.
|
| 63 |
Chicago Sun-Times
With a cleaner story line, the basic idea could have been free to deliver. As it is, we get a better movie than we might have, because the performances are so good.
|
| 63 |
USA Today
Either you will weep uncontrollably during the final 10 minutes or so of this bittersweet fable...or the urge to gag will be overwhelming.
|
| 63 |
Baltimore Sun
More of a sales pitch than a movie.
|
| 63 |
New York Post
Works unexpectedly well for its first three quarters.
|
| 50 |
Christian Science Monitor
You'll enjoy this sentimental drama if you feel good intentions are their own reward, at least where movies are concerned; but it'll exasperate you if you want your entertainment to have some connection with the world we actually live in.
|
| 50 |
Film.com
Spacey and company deserve better.
|
| 50 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Has all the elements of a satisfying movie except knowing when to stop.
|
| 50 |
New York Daily News
My rule of thumb for manipulative movies: I don't mind playing the marionette as long as the strings aren't visible.
|
| 50 |
Miami Herald
Winds up making a very good case for never going out of your way to help anybody.
|
| 50 |
TV Guide
There's no faulting this movie's Capra-esque concept, equal parts optimism and sad recognition of the world's intrinsic harshness, but its manipulative execution may rub you the wrong way.
|
| 50 |
San Francisco Examiner
There's the world-alteringly scary possibility that (Leder) might be trying to kill us with a star-studded "After School Special."
|
| 50 |
Chicago Tribune
Marc Caro
Too high-minded to stoop as low as it does, particularly in its unforgivably manipulative ending.
|
| 50 |
Washington Post
It's too bad about the ending because, until then, Pay It Forward... is Hollywood feel-goodism at its best.
|
| 49 |
Mr. Showbiz
Despite being full of Oscar-winning talent, this is still just a better-dressed, drawn-out episode of "Touched by an Angel."
|
| 42 |
Portland Oregonian
Feels more TV movie-of-the-week than Oscar contender.
|
| 40 |
Film.com
Tragic and phony, and proof that a contrived sad ending can be as bad as a contrived happy ending.
|
| 40 |
The New York Times
It's so enamored of its own upbeat view of human nature that it expects you to overlook its stick-figure characters, its creaky plot machinery and its remorseless assault on your tear ducts.
|
| 40 |
LA Weekly
(Leder's) camera won't sit still long enough to complete a scene and tell a coherent story, skittering all over the map until you're dizzy from all the degrees of separation and spurious connection.
|
| 40 |
Washington Post
Baldly manipulative, emotionally counterfeit melodrama.
|
| 40 |
Slate
Had enough grit to scratch its way through my cynical defenses, at least until its grotesque ending. But that capper isn't an aberration -- it's the logical extension of the movie's grandiose ambitions.
|
| 30 |
Chicago Reader
The truth is that this programmatic Christian parable is pretty unbearable--glib, often myopic, and reeking with sentimentality and self-pity.
|
| 30 |
Austin Chronicle
At its core, a very manipulative piece of work.
|
| 30 |
Time
As rigged as a casino slot machine, preying on people's hopes but paying off only for the house.
|
| 30 |
Salon.com
No wonder Arlene (Hunt) keeps a bottle of vodka in the chandelier. You would too with this demonic, passive-aggressive, New Age munchkin (Osment) trying to run your life.
|
| 25 |
Entertainment Weekly
Pushes and pushes and pushes the emotional throttle without respite.
|
| 20 |
Newsweek
If this is what Hollywood considers serious, important filmmaking, maybe the movie industry should stick to the low road.
|
| 10 |
Rolling Stone
Crass manipulation can clean up at the box office, so do your part: Nail this flick as a bottom feeder and pay the bad word forward to three others.
|
| 0 |
Village Voice
An overflowing septic tank of chicken-soupy sanctimony that proceeds from casually offensive hypocrisy to wretchedly inapt religiosity.
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