PAY IT FORWARD, is a drama genre film from the USA which is full of moral messages. The film was released in October 2000, adapted from Catherine Ryan Hyde's novel of the same title published in 1999. And the novel itself became a bestseller after the film adaptation was released, earning an award as one of the Best Books for Young Readers in 2001 from the American Library. Association. The film stars Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, Haley Joel Osment, Jay Mohr, Jim Caviezel, Angie Dickinson, Jon Bon Jovi, and Marc Donato. Directed by Mimi Leder, produced by Bel-Air Entertainment - Tapestry Films - Pathe and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. This 118-minute film, was able to reap a profit of 55 million US dollars. Rating for Pay It Forward is 7.2 from IMDb, 40% on Rotten Tomatoes. This film successfully won awards at the Blockbuster Entertainment Award (2001), Online Film & Television Association (2001), and the Young Artists Award (2001).
Synopsis
This film begins with the story of Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment), an 11 year old 7th grader who gets an important assignment from his teacher Mr. Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey) is a man who lives with full order with quite a scar on his face. The teacher gave a social project to the student as a prerequisite for advancing to class. They are given the freedom to find ways to change the world, that is, do small things but have big benefits for life. In essence, they were told to find answers to how each human being is able to benefit other humans.
In his daily life Trevor himself has a life that is not too happy. A child victim of the divorce of both parents. Even his mother, Arlene (Helen Hunt), is an alcoholic, who even hides his drink bottle from Trevor and drinks it secretly. As a single parent, to pay for the two of them, Mrs. Trevor had to take two jobs at once, being a waitress in a restaurant and a waitress at a nightclub. Meanwhile Trevor's father (Jon Bon Jovi) left them some time ago.
Without over thinking, Trevor found the answer. Trevor believes this little thing will have a big impact. He introduced the idea of Pay It Forward while formulating the scenario. Namely he will help the three people closest to him and then those three people will help the other three people and so on. This concept is similar to MLM (multi level marketing) business with a sense of kindness. In addition, this concept teaches that when someone does good to others, the recipient of the good must consequently spread kindness to others without strings attached. Doing kindness is simple and doesn't need to be thoughtful, such as feeding homeless people, having a sweet or smiling face, forgiving others' mistakes, being patient when disaster strikes, and so on.
Before starting the action, Trevor looks for anyone who deserves to be helped. Starting from the first person Jerry (Jim Caviezel) a tramp and drug addict, Trevor gave him a place to stay in the garage of his house so that Jerry can stop his addiction. Trevor felt like a failure, because Jerry left before it all continued. But actually what happened, Jerry continued the Pay It Forward idea without Trevor's knowledge. He helped a woman who wanted to commit suicide. Then the second person is Adam, his school friend, who often gets harsh treatment from naughty children at school. But Trevor again failed to provide help. The third person is Arlene (Mrs. Trevor), namely by introducing her mother to Mr. Simonet was the teacher, because both were lonely and thought a clean and sober teacher might help his mother stay away from alcohol.
Unexpectedly, it started with her success in helping her mother, his mother helped his grandmother, his grandmother helped a criminal from the police chase, and continued to a judicial official to journalist Chris. Trevor's Pay it Forward idea spread to various regions in America and succeeded in becoming a social movement and a journalist Chris wanted to write how Pay it Forward started after he was helped by a mysterious man (judicial official) who gave him a luxury car suddenly, and the person only asks him to provide assistance to others. Chris was amazed, and wanted to find out where this philosophy came from.
Unfortunately, before enjoying the sweetness of his kindness, Trevor died first because he was stabbed when he helped his classmate Adam from the interference of naughty children. Trevor's death left not only grief for Arlene and Simonet, but also for others who were inspired by Trevor's ideas. Thousands of people came to Trevor's house to offer their condolences. I think this is the perfect drama, giving you a laugh for a few small scenes, and giving you lots of tears at the end, maybe even having a tremendous effect on your transformation to become a good person who helps many people with this idea. Overall, a very emotional ending and inspiring in my life, change my mind.[]
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