K-PAX

The movie is well worth your time and money. I see a well-deserved Academy Award nomination for Spacey in the future and wouldn't be surprised if Bridges received a nomination for his supporting role. A great date movie there is something for everyone here. Kelsana 11/11/01


Sweet and Subtle Tale of the 'Alien' Among Us!   May 21, 2002
Barron Laycock (Temple, New Hampshire United States)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful

Although it opened to mixed reviews, I was pleasantly surprised by the very positive and entertaining way in which the movie "K-PAX" caught my imagination and subsequently ran away with it. Kevin Spacey, despite his last name, appears to be the most unlikely alien this side of "Star Wars', and his depiction of a simple, forthright and bemused visitor (or is he?) caught up in an acute psychiatric care unit involuntarily steals the screen from the other erstwhile ensemble cast members of the film. Jeff Bridges plays the part of the befuddled and over-anxious psychiatrist well, although I do wish that just once such a film would depict a human protagonist who actually has his or her feet planted firmly on terra firma, who is in touch with his or her surroundings, and who is consciously aware of the natural environment as well as the other people populating his or her corner of the universe. Why is it always seen as a celestial characteristic to out-humanize the human beings, so that only the alien seems empathetic, sensitive, and `human'?

This is a thought-provoking film on a number of levels, and one is left wondering at the end of the final scenes as to what actually transpired here. There are a number of ways to interpret these final scenes, and, to make things even more tentative and interesting, there's even an alternative ending supplied in the CD version I viewed, which really makes for fascinating table talk. There are a few hilarious scenes in the movie, especially one in which Spacey interacts meaningfully with a dog to the amazement of the picnic crowd, that will leave the viewer with a sense that whoever made this film was bright, articulate, and thoughtful. The film has a number of surprising turns, and by the end I was quite interested and concerned with what would possibly happen to each of the assembled characters. In other words, the film works dramatically, and leaves one feeling glad to have experienced it. I heartily recommend the movie, and hope you find it as satisfying as I did. Enjoy!


When the trailer is better than the movie (MINOR SPOILERS)   October 26, 2001
careful buyer (CT USA)
12 out of 25 found this review helpful

OK, I'll admit it - I thought from the trailer that this might just be American Beauty in Space. You know the drill - humor and pathos and ultimately some sense that life is its own redemption. The beginning of the movie was so promising: subtlety, ambiguity, some stunning photography of the light show that the sun puts on in Grand Central Terminal. (For cinematography, I would give this film five stars, by the way.) Prot (Kevin Spacey) appears and exihibits strange behavior that does not give the game away in the first two minutes (as so many recent films feel they have to do). Prot is admitted to the care of a psychiatrist (Jeff Bridges) and as he enters the hospital there is a lovely effect as the reflections of the two faces - doctor and patient - blend through the one way mirror. Aha, I thought, possibilities.

Unfortunately, the screenplay loses power almost immediately. It is not hard to figure out that the issue is whether Prot is a crazy human being or an alien. But in answering that intriguing question, we are given a parade of cliched characters who are introduced not to add human dimensions to the story but to advance the plot: the iron-willed hospital administrator, the long-suffering second wife, the brother (who just happens to be an astronomer? hello...), the various charming and harmless psychiatric patients who are not characters but walking diagnoses ("But doctor, an obsessive compulsive does not..."). The plot's twists and turns are neither plausible nor revealing. The tone of the movie keeps changing: humorous, tragic, is this a detective story, an illness of the week story, or sci fi?

For me, it is the ultimate sign of a weak screenplay that I started to notice the extraordinary camera work and the extraordinarily intrusive score. In a good movie, I tend to forget I am even watching a movie - the medium becomes transparent to the story experience. Here I was doing technical notes!

In the interests of candor, I left before the end of the movie. I didn't care enough about any of the characters that the outcome mattered. If you have Kevin Spacey in your movie, do not, repeat, do not, have him wear sunglasses 85% of the time. Mr. Spacey is an actor of superb range but the lower part of his face is not the seat of his expressiveness. The poet never said that the chin is the mirror of the soul.

And, if your screen writer actually has the sheriff say: "Oh, I remember that. It was the biggest thing to happen in these parts," fire him.


Gorgeous Film   July 1, 2002
Dr. Christopher Coleman (HONG KONG)
11 out of 13 found this review helpful

K-PAX is an excellent film rendition of Gene Brewer's novel of the same name. Where Brewer's novel was somewhat terse, told largely in the form of psychiatrist's notes, the film is much more lyrical. What debate there may be as to the superiority of a particular version surely lies in the nature of the particular medium, and the film's changes made from the novel are largely to take advantage of its enhanced visual and dialogue aspects. Cinematography and art direction were superb, and the music (a sort of Mike Oldfield/Tubular Bells homage by Ed Shearmur) fit the film perfectly. Director Ian Softley and screenwriter Charles Leavitt deserve kudos for keeping the spirit of Brewer's entrancing novel alive.

Especially noteworthy is the acting. Jeff Bridges and Mary McCormack do a wonderful job supporting Kevin Spacey. You really have to admire Spacey for exercising such selectivity over his projects, and here, as in American Beauty, he is at his peculiar best, a real delight to watch. Some viewers may find K-PAX a challenge, as it deals more with questions than answers; some will be disappointed that it doesn't meet their expectations as a science fiction film, or resemble One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest more. I submit that they have missed the point of the film altogether, which is as a gentle character study of a man caught in tragic circumstances, colored with a sense of wonder and social commentary delivered with magical realism. K-PAX is a real delight in both film and print forms; the novel also has an excellent sequel ON A BEAM OF LIGHT and a final member of the trilogy is due out soon. I hope that those books are brought to screen by the same talent involved in this one, it would be a great pleasure.