POSSIBLE WORLDS: 

Trevor travels the underbelly of the Las Vegas world on his bike, looking for ideas, because he and his mother actually live on the fringes themselves. His mother, Arlene (Helen Hunt) is an alcoholic waitress ("in recovery") who works in the casinos and in a strip-joint. Tre

vor comes up with a kind of pyramid scheme for doing good and instead of paying back someone who is good to you, he wants people to pay it forward, something "big" that requires one to sacrifice a lot, for three others. And so it begins, when he takes in a homeless drug-addict.

A rich man gives a journalist (Jay Mohr) a Jaguar, seemingly for nothing. But then the reporter tracks him down and follows the story backwards through various twists and turns and relationships between the characters are unveiled. We find out Simonet's story in one of the most dramatic scenes of the big screen, that makes a strong, impassioned statement about what life is like when families bottom out. The journalist finally gets to Trevor as he celebrates his 12^th birthday. Later that day, the student, the child, switches places with his teacher, and becomes a teacher himself.

PAY IT FORWARD challenges the cynicism of our contemporary world, and as some members of the screening audience noted (at the Unda-USA Assembly in Orlando, September 28, 2000), the filmmaker seems to want us to go through a process of taking the do-good scheme seriously: will it work? Won't it? The consensus of the 60 or so viewers who stayed for a conversation led by Barbara Nicolosi of ACT ONE, Dan Andriacco, Director of Communications for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, and Jonathan Boch, representing Warner Brothers, was that PAY IT FORWARD is a worthy film, with many human themes that ultimately lead us to the religious dimension of life so that we can transcend our weaknesses, forgive, grow beyond ourselves and care for our neighbor selflessly.

In a shift from formulaic screenplay structure, no clear main character actually emerges, but as one audience member stated, the main "character" is a triangle of people: Trevor, Arlene and Eugene. A kind of Trinity, actually, if one uses a theological lens. Trevor is a Christ-like figure, Eugene the father, and Arlene, who is responsible for furthering Trevor's pay it forward scheme, is the breath and spirit of "the movement".

One element of the film deserves mention and that is the use of stereo-types. Almost every character played is a stereotype, from the focus on the externally and internally scared Eugene, to the rich man who doesn't seem be able to make a sacrifice by giving away a luxury automobile to a complete stranger, to the drunks, addicts, Latinos and African-Americans, and white "trailer trash". Stereotyping is, of course, visual shorthand in film language, and PAY IT FORWARD employs this "technique" to the hilt, especially when showing undesirable flawed traits of the characters. Because its use is so pervasive in the movie, it becomes difficult then to target any particular category as being exploited. Though stereotyping is usually seen as a negative factor, here, right or wrong depending on your point of view, it works to move the story ahead and renders this particular film experience a positive one. If it were not for the flawed characters, the hope that springs forth at the end, would not be possible.

While there are reminders to Hunt's inclination to "fall in love with obsessive - compulsive men" as she did in AS GOOD AS IT GETS, visual reminders of FIELD OF DREAMS and ERIN BROCHOVICH, PAY IT FORWARD goes beyond any Capra-esque quality we may tend to assign it at first. Certainly it is an American film, dealing with and staying immersed in issues of the marginalized, the poor, alcoholics and the children they leave behind, drug-addicts and lonely children that US society has produced. Yet overall, PAY IT FORWARD has steady emotional power that is mostly convincing. The ending surprised me, and the song, CALLING ALL ANGELS, sung over the silent closing candle-lit scene, provides a gentling moment giving viewers time to gather their thoughts and feelings together before the lights turn up.

PAY IT FORWARD could have been about 15 minutes shorter, and one very obvious scene of someone paying it forward to save a woman from jumping off a bridge was almost too much. A solid all-round performance from Kevin Spacey. Jon Bon Jovi's token role is weak, but as Travis' father, needed so the story could move on. Some of the script was excellent and certainly none of it trivial. Angie Dickinson, as Arlene's drunken mother, played her bottled role so well it caught me unaware.

PAY IT FORWARD borders at times on cliché, but in the end, it works. It will not be a box office smash, but I know it is a film I will use over and over with youth groups, parents, teachers, film studies and religious education and film retreats when it comes out on video. Some movies are like that, and that's OK.

PAY IT FORWARD is not for young children. As Barbara Nicolosi noted at the screening, she has recommended it for mature teens and adults in an article she has written. This age audience does not limit the film, however, for if every viewer who experiences PAY IT FORWARD seeks out even one person to do something meaningful for, or even thinks about it, then this is a movie worth paying for.

Warner Brothers is to be commended for trying out a hard-edged inspirational film on American audiences, when at times we tend to let prudishness get in the way of understanding the artistry of filmmaking. When we get lost in surface issues of language and unease at showing human failure rather than to risk probing the depths of human dignity, we can miss the beauty, truth and goodness we can gain from the overall cinematic experience. PAY IT FORWARD is a relatively quiet film, with moments of some violence, great charm and human poignancy that do more for life and childhood than our fairy tales.