Eugene: Kevin Spacey	Arlene: Helen Hunt
Trevor: Haley Joel Osment	Sidney: Uncredited
Chris: Jay Mohr	Jerry: Jim Caviezel
Director: Mimi Leder

30 Second Bottom Line: A 7th grade boy is given an assignment to think of a way to make the world a better place. His idea is to do something big for someone that they can't do for themselves and instead of them paying him back, they pay it forward to someone else. This should create a chain reaction that improves the human condition.

Story Line: Mr. Simonet (Kevin Spacey) is the new teacher for Trevor (Haley Joel Osment) who takes this assignment to heart and he invites Jerry (Jim Caviezel), a homeless man, to live in his garage. Trevor's mother, Arlene (Helen Hunt), finds Jerry the next day and of course is shocked and not at all pleased, until she realizes that he has fixed her car and the money Trevor gave him helped him to get a job.

Arlene is separated from her abusive husband because they both are drunks. She is a cocktail waitress, living in the suburbs of Las Vegas and working on her drinking problem.

Mr. Simonet and Arlene are attracted to each other, and here the story takes off in two directions. One path is the love story of the adults and the other road, less traveled, is the pay it forward concept. This notion is being pushed along not only by Trevor, but also by a news reporter, Chris (Jay Mohr), who is given a new Jaguar by a generous proponent of the idea, after his Mustang is totaled.

Tell Me More About It: With this stellar cast I expect to see a film with great performances that is also enjoyable. What we get instead is a truly fine performance by Helen Hunt and very good performances by Spacey and Osment in which they give stock lectures and speeches. Although powerful, they never get me emotionally connected to what really is a profound idea; being kind to others and looking for nothing in return.

Jerry is a homeless drunk who gets religion with the slightest bit of kindness. The music is good but the plot does not rise to meet it. The only African American character of consequence is a thug with a stab wound, who for no apparent reason offers his spot in the emergency room to a sick kid with asthma. Before we know it he has a fit, pulls a gun and begins firing and is arrested. Over the course of his incarceration, he uses the "N" word in the most gratuitous way I can recall in any movie.

The performance by Spacey reminds me of what I think of Nicolas Cage's acting. Both are very good and can do best actor of the year work, but so much of what they do seems to be the same as what they have done before. Spacey is here to give speeches and make sarcastic remarks. At times I felt as if I was watching The Big Kahuna.

Osment clearly is an excellent actor who's working from a script more designed to manipulate the audience than to push his concept of paying it forward. If he'd been allowed to do that more effectively, his acting ability would have been put to much better use.

The only character who keeps the film from being a total bust is Helen Hunt. She is outstanding in portraying a working mom, trying to decide what to do with her love life, and dealing with her substance abuse. There is something about her performance that is real while everything else plays as a soap opera.

Last year, the supposed minor weaknesses in Hurricane may have been the difference maker in Denzel Washington not winning the best actor award. Helen Hunt's performance is Oscar caliber, but with the iceberg size Titanic holes in this film, her performance almost deserves to not get that level of recognition. This is a movie that starts out well, with potential, yet the more the story develops, the less it has to say.

PG-13 (sex; alcoholism; violence; language)

George@reelmoviecritic.com

Kevin Spacey: American Beauty	Helen Hunt: Dr. T and the Women
Haley Joel Osment: The Sixth Sense	Jay Mohr: Go
Jim Caviezel: Frequency	Mimi Leder: Deep Impact