(October 31, 2000) — Whenever you go to see a movie starring two Academy award-winning actors and one Academy award nominated actor, you have certain expectations of how good that movie will be. Sometimes those expectations are not met; other times they are. “Pay it Forward” is a film where your expectations will not only be met, they will be exceeded. In “Pay it Forward,” Trevor (Haley Joel Osment), a seventh grader who lives outside of Las Vegas, is given an assignment by his social studies teacher, Mr. Simonet (Kevin Spacey), where he must think of a way to change the world and put the plan into action. Trevor comes up with a new method helping people. This method calls for you to do a good deed for three people. Then each of those people, in return, do a good deed for three other people. He calls it the “pay it forward” method, since you pay the favor foward, to three people, instead of back. Trevor’s first good deed is to take in a homeless man named Gerry and help him get back on his feet. Trevor is confident of his idea and gives Gerry some money to help him find a place to live and get a job, but when Gerry fails to pay it forward Trevor thinks his idea is beginning to fail, so he tries even harder with his next two good deeds. The next favor goes to Trevor’s mother, Arlene (Helen Hunt), a recovering alcoholic who has to work two jobs to support Trevor and herself. This deed works and she pays it forward starting a chain of good deeds that reach all the way to Los Angeles where they catch the attention of a reporter (Jay Mohr), who begins a quest to find out where all this random kindness started. Spacey gives an emotional and heart felt performance as Mr. Simonet. Hunt is excellent as the hard-working mother trying to face up to her problems. The two play splendidly off one another and both give very deep and convincing performances. “Pay it Forward’s” only downfall is in the script. There are several places in the film that should have been developed much further. However, the acting from Spacey, Hunt and Osment more than make up for the script problems. Despite the aforementioned shortcomings, “Pay it Forward” is a top-notch film blending intense drama, an emotional ending and well-placed bits of comedy. ‘Pay it Forward’ is rated PG-13 for language and violence.