I was feeling a bit sick today and this film was on TV. My parents had told me about it previously, so I ended up watching it with my dad. I remember checking out the critical opinion on it, which was not too favourable. That's not to say it was inherently wrong, though. "Pay It Forward" is quite emotionally manipulative. Tearjerkers are aplenty here, and you kind of have to quell your inner cynic to enjoy it. While it's inherently dumb, I'm not going to lie - I liked the movie. In fact, I would have rated it higher if the ending hadn't been so rushed.

"Pay It Forward", at its core, is a story about a kid who wants to believe the world isn't such a "shitty place". He wants to know there is something good in it. It's overtly sentimental, but it did affect me. Simple ideas can go a long way, and that's not to say that the film doesn't tackle some heavy themes either. It prefers to reject the notion that people can't change and instead it insists that it's worth trying. Pretty neat idea, but it would not be satisfying if the concept worked out perfectly, not would it be believable. I'd actually argue that the writing was rather impressive until the end, when somebody must have realised there was no easy way to wrap up the character arcs presented in a straightforward way. I won't spoil it of course, but I'll just say that it goes for cheap emotional thrills and cliched grandoise, a fact that does not sit well with the grounded feel of all the previous set-up.

"Pay It Forward" is basically a pyramid scheme, except you're exchanging good acts with other people. And just like any other pyramid scheme, things aren't so simple. The ideas here are quite great, but I didn't find their resolution particularly conclusive. Still, the set-up was more than 90% of the movie and kept me hooked throughout. The characters presented are pretty well-written, even if Eugene's backstory was a tad overdramatic. I guess this goes for the whole film, though. But I really did like the McKinney family's story, which was a pretty good depiction of family struggles. It's where we spent the most time, though we do get glimpses of other persons through the eyes of Jay Mohr's journalist character, who is trying to trace back the origin of the Pay It Forward phenomenon he's been observing. Things get a little confusing timeline-wise, but it's written well enough that you get the idea by the end.

The acting here is great and I have no gripes with any performances whatsoever. Haley Osment did great at the age he played Trevor, giving us a very powerful performance with childhood innocence. Helen Hunt shows us the mental state of a broken mother. I won't go through the others, but these are two that impacted me the most. I will also say that the soundtrack was good enough for me to note it here. Really think that the melodies were able to stand out.

Altogether, I liked the film. It would be easy for me to take the place of the know-it-all, emotionally distant movie critic and trash it down to its foundations, but I'd rather enjoy what is a clear heartstring tugger. I don't blame anyone for not enjoying this flick, but I won't deny that I was touched by some of the stories here. I do wish the conclusion wrapped up the character arcs, but I'll let it slide somewhat due to the sheerly engaging content beforehand. Hollywood or not, there are some powerful themes here. Worth a watch for any who are willing to settheir disbelief aside.