K-PAX

2001

I love a movie that makes me come away from it feeling good, and this psychological jigsaw puzzle made me feel VERY good. Without giving away more of the plot than you already know from the trailers, "K-PAX" is about a man, Prot (Kevin Spacey, in a brilliant performance) who claims to be from another planet, K-PAX. It's up to his psychiatrist (Jeff Bridges) to find out what's really going on. The moral of the movie is that, often, it takes a stranger from outside our own inner circle, to help us see what's wrong...and right...with our own lives. I don't know why I was expecting a comedy; maybe the trailers were misleading. But, although there are some very funny moments in this film, it's really a very moving, sometimes heart-breaking story of human relationships, and how we take them for granted. I loved it!

5 Stars

NJB

A man is brought to a mental hospital when he claims to be a visitor from another planet. That man (Kevin Spacey) becomes the center of attention of patients and one curious doctor (Jeff Bridges) when he claims that he will be going home shortly and can take one friend back with him. Despite the great performances in this film by both Spacey and Bridges, I couldn't fight the boredom I felt during long stretches of this movie. It seemed to be the same old story about an outsider taking a different perspective on our world and trying to point out just how lucky we are. Yeah, we know, right? Besides the acting, the impressive thing about this movie is how it walks such a thin line between the two alternate explanations- that Spacey is just a nut or that he really is an alien. Strong arguments are presented for both alternatives, but I found myself just not really caring. The best thing about this film are the interactions between Spacey and Bridges and I'm not sure it's worth seeing in the theatre just for that.

3 Stars

CDF