Right up until the last 10-15 minutes, this light hearted picture would've gotten a top rating from me, but because of the tragic ending director Mimi Leder and screenwriter Leslie Dixon allowed this picture to have, I consider it total piss.

"Pay It Forward," based on the book by Catherine Ryan Hyde, is about a child named Trevor who starts a classroom experiment. The experiment is for every good deed done to you, you must perform three good deeds to three other people, thus paying it forward, not pay it back.

The film begins as a journalist is a stranded motorist when some dude with a Porchse gives him his car to take instead, saying "Just pay it forward." The journalist begins to find an entire movement of people paying it forward, without Trevor's knowledge or his mother's or teacher's.

The picture's message was so heart warming and well paced. However, in late Act Three, Trevor is knifed at school and somehow dies from the puncture wound.

When I saw this I immediately said, "What the fuck is this?" This feeble twist, which comes after the movie's climax is passed and looking like the credits are about to role, is so out of place and so deliberately created to try and get people to cry for the film. I was outraged.

Again, I am one all for unhappy endings. Or an ending some may say is more "real" than Hollywood usually allows. However, all scenes in movies must have a reason, all sequences must have a direction and purpose. So, when your movie is essentially over, WHY WOULD YOU KILL THE MAIN FUCKING CHARACTER? There was no reason for this action.

I have not read the book, nor will I, but if this ending is in the book, than Leder and Dixon failed as filmmakers. They should've seen this ending was a joke for the movie they did so well to put together up until that point. They should've taken their book rights and made the script their own.

Leder was at the helm for "Deep Impact," while Dixon has a hit and miss resume with me, most recently crediting her for penning "Freaky Friday." Take of that what you will.

Trevor is played by Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense), while his mother is played by Academy Award winner Helen Hunt (As Good As It Gets). His teacher was played by two-time Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey (American Beauty), so obviously the film had a powerhouse cast to tell its story. It's just the ending, which ruined everything. So useless and damaging, I cannot tell you to go rent it in good conscience. Avoid it unless you want to get as pissed off at it as I did.

Benn - Where's the Humanity?