Kevin Spacey plays Prot, a mysterious character who is admitted to a mental hospital after claiming to come from the planet K-PAX and be merely visiting on his hyper-lightspeed tour of the stars. Psychologist Jeff Bridges sets to work trying to unravel the guy's true identity and whatever sparked off his personality switch, but when Prot casually defies standard treatment, both psychological and physiological, while manifesting several strange abilities, Bridges begins to become even more fascinated by his patient, even bordering on believing him. Prot is able to give the exact time he plans to leave Earth to return home, and the psychologist believes he will either undergo a severe regressive trauma at that time or, maybe, genuinely disappear altogether.
K-PAX is a real slow burner of a movie. Not much happens to jolt the pace of the unfolding storyline, which is intriguing enough with consecutive revelations alternately casting doubt on each theory in turn. Unfortunately this does result in a dragging feeling at points, especially when any drama set in a psychiatric ward is going to be compared to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and just as inevitably be inferior. Performances are as solid as both lead actors consistently produce and there is an earnest attempt at a conversation provoking ending, albeit a short one. One real highlight is the subtle cinematographic play with light, reflections and diffraction throughout and nice establishing shots of the city around the hospital. Not going to blow you away, but neither is it going to leave you disappointed. |
