Forward Thinking

One of the things that held up my top 100 film countdown was one movie in particular, Pay It Forward. I had accepted that I wasn't going to have time to re-watch every movie on my list to place it precisely, but this was one movie I really wanted to make time for.

See, the thing is, I loved this movie when I saw it originally at the theater. Loved everything about it. But it was hammered rather hard by the critics, and over the ensuing 10 years, on any occasion it has come up, it's been in a conversation about how bad someone else thought it was. From friends and critics alike, the people who come down against the film are pretty united in their dislike: they find the movie treacly, working too blatantly to manufacture false sentiment.

I just had to watch the movie again to see if a movie so widely disliked was really going to end up in my top 100 list. And my conclusion? Pay It Forward is a real barometer of taste in film.

It's the story of a young boy (Haley Joel Osment) being raised by a single mother (Helen Hunt) battling alcoholism. A mysterious but inspiring school teacher (Kevin Spacey) assigns a class project that gets the boy thinking about how to change the world for the better, and heart-warminess (or treacle, depending on your perspective) ensues.

Yes, the film works very deliberately to do what it does. It's carefully written, with every moment having a job to serve in the larger whole. But where some apparently see strain in this, I found it genuine. And I found it all lifted up further by exceptional performances. All three actors I've mentioned already are compelling and perfect for their roles -- even many of the critics writing negative reviews acknowledged that.

In the end, I found that not only would this movie remain in my top 100 list, but it would be higher than I'd originally thought to place it. And that might make it the highest rated "bad movie" on my list, judging by its officially Rotten score over at RottenTomatoes.com. But it's my list. So there. Obviously, it's an A in my book.