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Reviews:
Pay It Forward? Pay ME
Back!
by Michael Flanagan
Wimpy
I recently read a review of Pay It Forward
in which the critic panned the movie and called it insulting and
manipulative. He said the
film was shameful in its attempt at plot and character and he even went
so far as to give away the ending.
How awful!
In the end, the boy, played well enough by the Sixth Sense's
Haley Joel Osment, dies. He is stabbed and killed by a grade school bully.
His mother, played by Helen Hunt, falls in tears and is held up
by Kevin Spacey as she cries like a baby at the los of her son.
The reason I can tell you the ending, just like the angry
professional critic, is because at this point in the film, about five
minutes before the much anticipated closing credits, nobody cares.
Pay It Forward creates a morality tale in the fashion of a fable.
Of course, you will have more sympathy for the hare who loses to
the tortoise than you will muster for any of these stereotypical
characters.
Then why review the film at all, you may ask?
For two reasons: Jay
Mohr and Jon Bon Jovi. Jay
Mohr puts more spark and feeling into his thinly designed role of the
backwards searching man in hopes of finding the source of "Pay It
Forward" than any other person in the film.
And, to top it all off, he is not mentioned in the previews.
Therefore, Mr. Mohr, well done, but, for the love of Saturday
Night Live, find a better movie!
And lastly, we must mention Jon Bon Jovi.
No, he does no music for the film;
that honor went to American
Beauty composer Thomas Newman.
And, ironically, the music sounds just like . . . American
Beauty!!! Kevin Spacey has
his own theme, now! No, Jon
Bon Jovi plays the stereotypical abusive husband alcoholic father.
He plays the small part fairly well, but he is
Bon Jovi, and he also is not in the previews.
However, he is in this Review, such as it is.
What more could be said? Any
more would give the film too much credit.
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