Kevin Spacey may win another Oscar for Best Actor, even though he already won it last year for "American Beauty."
Helen Hunt may win another Best Actress Oscar, and unlike when she won it for "As Good As It Gets," she may actually deserve it this time.
Haley Joel Osment, who was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor last year for "The Sixth Sense," may actually win it this year.
The screenplay by Leslie Dixon is worthy of an Oscar, as is the directing by Mimi Leder.
Of course, it's too early in the year to know if they should win. I mean, "Cast Away," the highly anticipated movie that reunites "Forrest Gump" star Tom Hanks with "Forrest Gump" director Robert Zemeckis, will be out in December (ironically enough, that movie also co-stars Helen Hunt), and I'm sure that there will be some Oscar nominations for that movie. And I'm sure that a few other great movies will be coming out before the year is over. But rest assured, "Pay It Forward" is the first film for the year 2000 that can truly be considered a masterpiece.
"Pay It Forward" is a movie that will make you so happy at times, you'll wanna run out and celebrate life. But there are also times in "Pay It Forward" that will make you cry, and you'll wonder why it is that we live in such a cruel world.
I saw a sneak preview of this movie, and the crowd I saw it with loved it. It was sold out, every single seat was filled, but beginning to end, you could hear a pin drop. The only time I heard noise was when I heard people cry, and believe me, there were a lotta people crying.
What an incredible cast in this movie! As I mentioned earlier, Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, and Haley Joel Osment are sensational. But there are other actors and actresses who are just as good. Jay Mohr is great (as usual) as a reporter, James Caviezel (Dennis Quaid's son in "Frequency") is really good, and very nasty looking, as a homeless junkie, David Ramsey as the gang member, Jon Bon Jovi as Osment's father, Angie Dickinson as Helen Hunt's mom... they're all terrific. This is an excellent group of performers in this movie.
The screenplay was by Leslie Dixon. She wrote "Outrageous Fortune" and "Overboard," and she helped write "Mrs. Doubtfire" and the recent remake of "The Thomas Crown Affair." It was adapted from the book by Catherine Ryan Hyde. I've never read the book, but what a beautiful, intriguing concept for a story. And Leslie Dixon did a fine job of adapting a novel into a screenplay that could have been really sloppy, but wasn't. It's a tight screenplay, and though she plays with timelines, it's not in any way confusing. Then there's the director, Mimi Leder. She directed quite a few episodes of "E.R.," but with feature films, all she's done is "The Peacemaker" (which I never saw, but I didn't hear a lot of good things about it) and "Deep Impact," which I really enjoyed, but it's hardly considered "quality cinema." With "Pay It Forward," she proves that she can direct an emotional, deeply substantive movie, and she does it beautifully. I'm not sure if a woman has ever won an Oscar for Best Director, but Mimi Leder may win it this year. I'd love to see that.
I can't really
think of any flaws in this movie, except that there are a couple of moments
where it may seem kinda corny, but it never gets TOO corny. I certainly
wasn't bored at all, not for a moment. I look forward to seeing what the
professional movie critics, especially my favorite, Roger Ebert, have to
say about "Pay It Forward." Quite honestly, I don't see how anyone
can say anything bad about it.
Scale of
1-10: 10