Pay It Forward

Pay It Forward, directed by Mimi Leder, does not usually get the attention it deserves. Released in 2000, it was hardly recognized for any awards, which I find a huge injustice. The film is generally about the adage "pay it forward," which is the idea that instead of repaying a debt you owe to someone, you pass your payment along to some third party. Haley Joel Osment, who was a phenomenal child actor who could squeeze a tear out of me whenever he pleased, plays Trevor, the son of an alcoholic mother played by Helen Hunt. For a school project, he comes up with the idea of Pay It Forward, threefold. The idea is that when someone does a good deed for you, you return the favor by doing a good deed for three other people. Each of those people will do a good deed for three other people, and so on and so forth, until the whole world is affected. Rather than an exhibit of naivete, the project ends up actually making an impact, and a reporter ends up traveling across the US, trying to find the source of this intricate web of altruism. Meanwhile, Trevor himself tries to help his mother and his teacher, and they in turn help each other. An inspiring story that will touch your heart and make you really think about humanity, Pay It Forward might just encourage you to follow Trevor's example and try to make the world a better place -- which he somehow shows to be possible.

Is the world just shit?
Amanda :)