Pay It Forward (film)
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Mimi Leder |
| Produced by | Mary McLaglen Jonathan Treisman Steven Reuther Peter Abrams Robert L. Levy (II) Paddy Carson |
| Screenplay by | Leslie Dixon |
| Based on |
Pay It Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde |
| Starring |
Kevin Spacey Helen Hunt Haley Joel Osment Jay Mohr Jim Caviezel Angie Dickinson Jon Bon Jovi Marc Donato |
| Music by | Thomas Newman |
| Cinematography | Oliver Stapleton |
| Edited by | David Rosenbloom |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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118 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $40 million |
| Box office | $55.7 million |
Pay It Forward is a 2000 American drama-romance film based on the novel of the same name by Catherine Ryan Hyde. The film is set in Las Vegas in the present day, and it chronicles 12-year-old Trevor McKinney's launch of a goodwill movement known as 'pay it forward'. Directed by Mimi Leder and written by Leslie Dixon, the film stars Haley Joel Osment as Trevor, Helen Hunt as his alcoholic single mother Arlene McKinney, and Kevin Spacey as his physically and emotionally scarred social studies teacher Eugene Simonet.
Pay It Forward was released on October 20, 2000 to mixed reviews, with most critics praising the acting, writing, music and cinematography but criticizing the story and accusing it of excessive emotional manipulation, particularly in its ending. The film was a moderate box office success, earning just over $55.7 million on a $40 million budget.
When 12-year-old Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment) begins 7th grade in Las Vegas, Nevada, his social studies teacher Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey) gives the class an assignment to devise and put into action a plan that will change the world for the better. Trevor's plan is a charitable program based on the networking of good deeds. He calls his plan "pay it forward", which means the recipient of a favor does a favor for three others rather than paying the favor back. However, it needs to be a major favor that the recipient cannot complete themselves.
Trevor does a favor for three people, asking each of them to "pay the favor forward" by doing favors for three other people, and so on, along a branching tree of good deeds. His first good deed is to let a homeless man named Jerry (Jim Caviezel) live in his garage, and Jerry pays the favor forward by doing car repairs for Trevor's mother. Trevor's efforts appear to fail when Jerry relapses into drug addiction, but Jerry pays his debt forward later by talking to a suicidal woman, who is about to jump off a bridge.
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