Review "Play It, Forward."Movie
Pros
Great actors

Cons
Atrocious script, forced ending, failure to follow any story line

Full Review

Remember Jerry Maguire? Remember the kid? Remember how you cried at the end? Yeah. Well, imagine if, after Jerry's impassioned speech, all the women had huddled together and like, accidentally crushed the kid's skull. Then you would have really been crying. Right?

Remember the cute kid at the end of Life is Beautiful? Don't you think that tank should have pulled up and blown him to Smithereens? What's that you say? It wasn't an enemy tank? Hey, if it makes you cry, who cares if it makes a damn bit of sense? Right?

Let me tell you about Pay it Forward. It's the story of the wonderful Haley Joel Osment, the cutest kid going, and an assignment he gets from his Social Studies teacher to change the world. He works out a plan: he will help three people in a big way, and in turn, request that those people help three people, and so on. Great idea, right?

So, to start the experiment, he helps a homeless junkie get back on his feet by giving him a place to stay for a few nights and enough money to buy clothes to get a job. Though he struggles, the junkie meets a woman about to commit suicide and coaxes her from the side of a bridge.

Alright, enough about them. We're never going to talk about them again. Got it?

Because, see, there's these two really sad people, the kid's Mom, and his teacher, and they have really big problems. She is an alcoholic who is trying really hard to get straight while working as a cocktail waitress in a huge bar in Vegas. He is grossly disfigured. Isn't that sad? See?

Meanwhile, there is a small-time crook who actually fires a gun in a hospital just to get emergency room attendants to give care to a little girl having a massive asthma attack.

Alright, enough about them. We are never going to discuss these people ever again. Got it?

Good. Because these other two people have really sad lives. See? They are so sad that they could never possibly have a romantic relationship with anybody. So, then they get involved in a relationship with each other. See? But they both still have problems. Big problems.

Then, Jon Bon Jovi arrives on the scene as the father of the little boy, and after about two minutes of distracting us from the sad people, he gets drunk and gets kicked out of the house.

ALRIGHT - ENOUGH about him. We have given him way too much time already. Got it? Forget about him. Now.

Because these other two people have really big problems. Much bigger than your problems. How big? Well, uhhhhh, the teacher is disfigured because, uhhh, his dad set him on fire. Yeah. See what I mean? Huge problems. And then, he isn't even speaking to the kid's Mom. See?

Darnit, what's wrong with you people. You don't seem sad yet. I don't think you understand how sad these people are.

Alright, so then the kid gets stabbed and dies. HA! Yeah! You didn't see that coming, did you?

Yeah, yeah. He dies. Are you crying? See? This is brilliant, isn't it?

He dies and then all those other people come back and hold up candles in front of the sad people who are sadder than ever. Yeah. Everyone comes back. Oh, except Jon Bon Jovi, because he probably had a concert gig or something. But I told you to forget about him.

Are you crying? Bring on the Oscars.

Leaving Las Vegas and Sling Blade come to mind as recent movies which had tragic endings, but were great movies because they earned their endings. The end of each did not betray the tone, and though tragic, seemed the logical conclusion to all that had come before.

The end of this movie betrays everything that had come before, erasing the hope and humanity that leaked through the bleakness. The idea behind this film is wonderful, full of potential, and I bet somewhere out there, there is a great movie about all the people that this film just swallows up and forgets about because they are not named Helen Hunt or Kevin Spacey.

Hunt and Spacey are strong and convincing as characters rife with problems. In the end, however, their biggest problem turns out to be this grossly inadequate script, and the apparent notion that, unless something really tragic happens at the end, totally out of the blue (see City of Angels - the old king of this genre), people will not be moved. While this is true, it does not excuse tacking on a tragedy to a story that did not earn it.

Maybe it worked it the book, but it is a miserable failure here.