What do you do when someone does you a favor? Instead of paying him back, Trevor Mckinney tells you to pay it forward.
Pay It Forward stars Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense) as 7th grader Trevor McKinney, the son of an alcoholic and single mother Arlene (Helen Hunt, What Women Want, Cast Away). Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey, American Beauty) is Trevor's unconventional Social Studies teacher who gives his class an unexpected assignment at their first meeting: "Think of an idea to change the world and put it into action." Simonet wants his pupils not only to know current events but also to think of making a difference in society. Trevor comes up with an idea: he will do an act of kindness to three people and instead of being paid back with gratitude, he will ask each recipient to pay it forward to three more people. They in turn must pay another good deed to three other people, and so on. Trevor works on a homeless man, his teacher Simonet, and his classmate Adam. Four months later, a reporter's (Jay Mohr) car crashes while on a beat and a stranger gives him his Jaguar to keep. The reporter tries to find out why anyone would do such thing and was told to simply "pay it forward."
Leslie Dixon's screenplay based on Catherine Ryan Hyde's novel is a powerful story. Director Mimi Leder (Deep Impact) is Steven Spielberg's protégé and shows the same ability of maintaining the balance in creating realism without falling into melodrama. The lead characters are fully developed and superbly performed. Helen Hunt enters her character as a struggling woman juggling two jobs and fighting her inner demons with such passion. Kevin Spacey as the physically and emotionally scarred teacher is palpably vulnerable. Haley Joel Osment shows a wide range of emotional depth despite his youth. The harsh and austere sections of Las Vegas, instead of the usual flashy casinos, provide an appropriate setting for the story.
Few movies are able to match the sterling performance of the actors with an equally compelling message. Pay It Forward is a rare movie with a noble story of kindness, forgiveness, healing and the courage to do one's part in making this world a better place to live in. It redefines the role of a teacher and parents, and their influence in a child's life. It also exposes a lot of issues like poverty, drugs, alcohol, violence, domestic abuse, and many others making it unsuitable for young kids. To realistically portray the different situations, there is offensive language, theft, stabbing, a sexual relationship between Eugene and Arlene is implied, and she is shown in skimpy outfits. But above all, Pay It Forward shows, not karma as some misguided critics deduce, that the biblical principle "love others as you love yourself" actually pays off. This is a must see movie for teachers, parents and children 14 years old and above.
REFLECTION:

Maybe someday I'll have kids of my own. I hope so. If I do, they'll probably ask what part I played in the movement that changed the world. And because I'm not the person I once was, I'll tell them the truth. My part was nothing. I did nothing. I was just the guy in the corner doing my usual thing..

I found out that actions have consequences, and not everything is under my control. Until I found out that I couldn't change the world at all, but a seemingly extra-ordinary movie, and a twelve-year-old boy could change the world completely — for the better, and forever—working with nothing but his own altruism, one good idea, and a couple of years, and a big sacrifice.

It started with a teacher who moved to Atascadero, California, to teach social studies to junior high school students. A teacher nobody knew very well, because they couldn't get past his face—because it was hard to look at his face.

It started with a boy, young Trevor McKinney, troubled by his mother's alcoholism and fears of his abusive father, who didn't seem all that remarkable on the outside, but who could see past his teacher's face.

It started with an assignment, where Trevor caught up by an intrigued by this one, which his teacher, Mr. Simonet, had given out a hundred times before, with no startling results. But that assignment in the hands of that boy caused a seed to be planted, and after that nothing in the world would ever be the same. Nor would anybody want it to be.

The assignment: think of something to change the world and put it into action. Trevor conjures the notion of paying a favor not back, but forward—repaying good deeds not with payback, but with new good deeds done to three new people. Trevor's efforts to make good on his idea bring a revolution not only in the lives of himself, his mother and his physically and emotionally scarred teacher, but in those of an ever-widening circle of people completely unknown to him.