Sebb Pay it forward is not really a good movie. The characters are unlikeable, the story is really clunky and some of the dialogue is awful. However, there are some inspiring and good scenes in this movie. And the meaning the movie is trying to show is great on paper, but is not really explored well in the movie. The love story in this movie feels very out of place and boring. If the movie had focused all the way on the pay it forward thing, it would have worked much better. 4/10

sol- Given an assignment to affect a major change in the world, an impressionable junior high student invents a favours system that sounds good in theory, but can it work in practice? While such a plot summary might make 'Pay It Forward' sound more interesting than it really is, there is no doubting the thought and intelligence of the proposed system: do three big favours for three individuals, who (instead of paying you back) pay a favour forward for three other people. Clever as this may sound, the filmmakers struggle to craft a solid narrative from the idea. While we see the flow-on effects of the system with random strangers doing favours for other strangers in a journalism side-plot, our young protagonist is simply interested in doing favours for those who he knows - which is hardly novel. He has a lonely mother, a sad teacher and a bully target friend, and there is nothing whimsical about his desire to help out these stock characters. By comparison, the best scenes occur in the side-plot as a lawyer gives away his new car and an elderly lady helps a thief evade the law; in fact, the best part comes in the first ten minutes as the reporter suspects a 'Strangers on a Train' trade will pop up before accepting the car. The film is sentimental to boot too with a weak ending that oddly borrows from 'Platoon'. And yet, despite all flaws, the film is engaging while it lasts. Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt do well within the confines of their roles and Thomas Newman's enchanting score is superb. It is just a shame that such an interesting idea could not make for a more satisfying tale.

mark.waltz Certainly the idea of a world utopia where everyone gives more than they take sounds like heaven on earth, but since the chances of that happening are smaller than earth being hit by a meteor, we have to settle for the fantasy of what that would be like. This film explores what the world would be like through the eyes of half a dozen unrelated strangers whose paths cross simply because of a good deed done by one without the expectations of something in return. It starts off in a rather confusing state as each of the characters are introduced, from a wealthy businessman who gives a total stranger the keys to his Jaguar to a prison inmate that stranger (who happens to be a reporter) goes to interview upon learning of the term "pay it forward".However, it is three major characters who carry the base of the story, and when they are introduced, the glue which keeps the story together begins to stick. They are emotionally and physical scarred Junior High history teacher Kevin Spacey, an alcoholic Vegas showgirl/cocktail waitress (Helen Hunt) and her young son, Haley Joel Osmont, who takes Spacey's assignment "Find something you feel that would change the world and make it happen", who is the heart and soul of around which "pay it forward" means. While other kids are too busy with sports, video games or the opposite sex, Osmont takes the challenge to heart, and befriends a homeless drug addict who takes the steps to sober up all because some stranger he met in his homeless camp takes an interest in him without judgment.Of course, the world weary Hunt is horrified to find a strange man taking a shower in her home and this leads her to confront her son's teacher. But as parents learn in the most trying of life lessons, they need to listen to their children more often, and when she discovers the magic of what her son is doing, she is drawn both into the bright light of what he is doing and sobering up with the support of her son and his teacher who reveals his innermost feelings towards her when she begins to find herself attracted to him.These three characters fortunately dominate the bulk of the story and there are only fleeting glimpses into the lives of the others involved, tying together as the prison inmate (David Ramsey) tells his story. It involves a drunken homeless woman (Angie Dickinson looking quite different than normal) who rescued him from a precarious predicament, and in true soap opera fashion, all the characters end up being tied together in a rather surprising way. The story takes a romantic turn when Spacey gets beyond his insecurities over his physical deformities and bares not only his body but his soul to the equally destroyed Hunt. This is a story of two emotionally dead people coming back to life, but the threat of Hunt's past comes back in the form of her estranged husband (Jon Bon Jovi) who claims to be reformed. But is he? Not according to his emotionally distant son who not only locks him out of his room but his heart as well. When Spacey reveals the story behind the scars, it really becomes heartbreaking, and he gives one of the best performances in modern cinema.Of course, there has to be a lesson learned for not only the characters, but the audience as well, and like history has shown, that can only come through a tragedy and a sacrifice. This is where you get your Kleenex out, because even if the "Pay It Forward" theme is something that sounds too good to be true, the heart and soul behind it grabs you in completely. I have seen many movies with remarkable kids over the years, and even met some, and in this messed up world of ours, that is the hope of our future that each coming generation will produce someone like Haley Joel Osment's Trevor. Cinema today is often a mixed bag of trash but sometimes there comes out of it an instant classic that is not only a piece of art, but something so profound that it seems divinely inspired.

Aynur Rzayeva Now I know... I could perceived things, things happened to me long time ago, happens now and maybe will happen tomorrow. The reason... We all are here, living for not to pay back what we are given, but to pay forward How beautiful phrase it is, TO PAY FORWARD Special thanks for Catherine Ryan Hyde, A writer of the book/movie "Pay It Forward" We all think about to pay back. If our parents bring us up, we care them because they had done for us before. It is wrong. They do for use, but we don't pay back, we pay forward to our kids. Also we care our parents not because to pay back something, because we love them. Only reason. This film taught me a lot of things which were unclear, but actually they were clear, but I was blind. That's what I learned.