"Nice guys finish last" - a quote (wrongly) attributed to
legendary baseball coach Leo Durocher. Good Virus has set out to
debunk that quote, that myth. According to scientists who have done
massive research on social networks, success and related subjects, nice
persons are actually more likely to succeed in whatever, have a higher
life expectancy, better health scores and whatnot (at least on average of
course). Plus, kindness is likely to spread like a virus, which is based
on the simple assumption if kind things are done to you, you are more
likely to do kind things to others. This is pretty much the
scientific backbone of the film, carried by such scientists as social
sciences professor James Fowler and psychology professor Dacher Keltner of
the Greater Good Science Center - and of course Catherine Ryan
Hyde, whose book Pay It Forward (turned into a movie of the same
name by Mimi Leder in 2000) - about people doing 3 random acts of kindness
and persuading the recipients to do the same - touches many of the same
grounds as Good Virus ... and fittingly, she's also the narrator of
this movie. The heart of the film though are
the stories of people from all droves of life trying to answer two basic
and surprisingly difficult questions: "What is the nicest thing that
anyone has ever done for you?" and "What is the nicest thing
that you have done for someone else?" And it's the choice of people
that really breathes life into the movie, an eclectic group that includes
roller derby girls, street musicians, a man staging one-man peace
protests, members of the Free Hugs-movement and the Big Brothers
Big Sisters organisation and the like, plus the film's very own mascot
(and one of its produceers) Chane't Johnson, who loves going out dressed
up as a yellow virus spreading goodness. And basically, it's
the choice of interviewees that makes the film work: Sure, you might
consider the subject of the film as hippie crap (you're wrong of course,
but that's besides the point), and the people who talk about their acts of
kindness as freaks - but hey, all of these guys seem happy just being
kind, and if that doesn't at least get you thinking, there might be
something wrong with you ... If that has gotten you at all
interested, you can find out more about the movie here:
http://kindness-is-contagious.com/
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