Stars can’t quite make ‘Pay it Forward’ shine

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In theaters

PAY IT FORWARD, 122 minutes, PG-13; directed by Mimi Leder, written by Leslie Dixon, based on the novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde.

Mimi Leder’s new film, “Pay it Forward,” stars Haley Joel Osment in his first movie since “The Sixth Sense.” Here, he sees good people. Lots of good people. In fact, he comes to see a world full of them.

The film, which seems to be manufactured to furrow a cynic’s brow before bringing up their lunch, follows Osment as Trevor McKinney, the son of an alcoholic mother and father who’s inspired by his social studies teacher, Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey), to devise a plan that will change the world.

“Yes, there’s a world out there,” Simonet says to his seventh-grade pupils. “And even if you don’t want to meet it, it’s still going to hit you right in the face.”

Since Trevor lives in Las Vegas, the task of changing the world may seem unduly difficult, if not impossible, given that he must begin his mission in Sin City. But Trevor, an 11-year-old boy who literally defines co-dependency, comes up with the novel idea of paying it forward – which essentially means that if someone helps you, you must pass that favor on to three other people, who must then pass it on themselves. And so on.

It’s a charming concept and one that, Leder reveals at the start before fading into flashback, becomes a feel-good movement, the kind self-help gurus such as Oprah or those “Chicken Soup for the Soul” people get behind. But by revealing the movement’s success, Leder has essentially robbed her film of the tension it could have had if audiences were left with the lingering question of whether Trevor’s plan will work at all.

Countering that, Leder creates tension in other ways – namely, by having Trevor introduce his emotionally scarred mother, Arlene (Helen Hunt), to the physically and emotionally scarred Mr. Simonet, a man whose face and body were damaged in a fire.

If anything lifts “Pay it Forward” out of the tsunami of melodrama that Leder consistently hurls at it, it’s the dynamics of what happens between Arlene, Trevor and Simonet as their relationships gradually open into trust, friendship – and then love. Hunt, Osment and Spacey are so good in their roles, they actually ground the film with restraint, thus making it possible to overlook at least some of the script’s overt contrivances.

That is, unfortunately, until the end, when “Pay it Forward” leaps into the deep end of the ocean with two miserable twists no performance can save.

The first twist swirls around Simonet, the second around Trevor, and while neither will be revealed here, each nearly kills all that came before.

Indeed, in Leder’s brazen effort to say something meaningful about our culture and the human experience, she goes too far – way too far – leaning hard into the realm of the ridiculous as she punctuates her themes of good Samaritanism with two hugely unnecessary exclamation points.

Grade: C

On video

THE PATRIOT, 160 minutes, R; directed by Roland Emerich, written by Robert Rodat.

In spite of taking almost three hours to tell their story about the American Revolution, director Roland Emerich, Mel Gibson and screenwriter Robert Rodat (“Saving Private Ryan”) nevertheless prove they’re well up to the task, waving their muskets, firing their cannons and swinging their ponytails almost as effectively as D.W. Griffith did in his 1924 silent film, “America.”

Big on every level, “The Patriot” is a popcorn movie that works in spite of its melodrama, inflated running time and contrivances. It shamelessly stirs emotions with the violence of the battlefield, the love of a family and the loyalties that fall somewhere in between, but it isn’t fluff. There are shadings here that run deep, and that’s because the film pays close attention to the human aspects of war.

The film stars Gibson as Benjamin Martin, a former hero of the French and Indian War, widower and father of seven who tries his best to keep his eldest son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger), out of the war against the British.

It doesn’t work. Gabriel is determined to enlist, which he does with a flip of his ponytail and a snub of his nose in spite of his father’s staunch warnings.

Now, with his son at war, Benjamin predictably finds himself drawn onto the battlefield when Gabriel is injured, the Revolution heats up and an evil British colonel named Tavington (Jason Isaacs) targets the family – and makes things deadly personal.

As grisly as Gibson’s “Braveheart,” and featuring battle sequences as realistic as anything in “Saving Private Ryan,” “The Patriot” comes to life in its violent deaths. It’s saturated in gore, which Emerich proves masterful at capturing; throughout the many battles, he uses his camera like a well-aimed musket to seek out the action as it literally explodes onscreen.

Ledger and Isaacs are strong, as are Joely Richardson, Chris Cooper and particularly Tom Wilkinson in supporting roles. But “The Patriot” works best because of Gibson, whose solid, often gripping performance gives the film the epic weight it needs.

Grade: B+

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays in Style and Thursdays in the scene.

The Video Corner

Renting a video? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores.

Center Stage – D+

The Patriot – B+

Toy Story 2 – A

Keeping the Faith – B+

Rules of Engagement – C-

Shanghai Noon – C

Pitch Black – B+

East-West – A-

The Skulls – D-

Snow Day – F

U-571 – C-

Black and White – B-

Final Destination – D-

A Map of the World – A-

High Fidelity – A-

Ready to Rumble – D

28 Days – C-

East is East – A

Mission to Mars – D-

American Psycho – B+

Any Given Sunday – C+

I Dreamed of Africa – B

The Next Best Thing – D

The Tigger Movie – B-

Supernova – D-

Erin Brockovich – B+

The Cider House Rules – A-

Here on Earth – D+

Reindeer Games – C+

Princess Mononoke – A

Romeo Must Die – C-

Whatever It Takes – B

The Beach – D+

Drowning Mona – C-

Magnolia – A-

Angela’s Ashes – B-

The Ninth Gate – C+

Ride with the Devil – C-

What Planet Are You From? – D

The Whole Nine Yards – B+

All About My Mother – A

Down to You – D

The Hurricane – A-

My Dog Skip – B+

Scream 3 – B-

Hanging Up – F

The Talented Mr. Ripley – A

Scream 3 – B-

Anna and the King – A-

Sweet and Lowdown – A-

Topsy-Turvy – A

Bicentennial Man – D+

Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo – C-