K-PAX

Come on, you know that old switcheroo. That's the one in Hollywood where the sane people learn a valuable lesson about life from the nutty people in the rubber rooms and straight jackets. You know, it's the old "my God, the man who puts jello down his shorts every day at 11:13am and then runs through the mall yelling about how gophers are going to take over the world just told me the most profound thing I have ever heard, and my life is dramatically improved because of him. Thank you nutty stranger, for teaching us to laugh about life..... again".

We're speaking the same language now, and you know the old switcheroo.

But even though we have seen the old switcheroo over and over again, it's still a bucketload of fun, and that is very much the case in K-PAX, the new film starring Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges.

K-PAX (which sounds an awful lot to me like a feminine hygiene product) features Kevin Spacey as "Prot" (not "Prot" as in knot or plot or Camelot, but "Prot" is in bloat or stoat or float), a man who, through a random act of kindness, find himself landed squarely under the supervision and care of a Psychiatrist, played by Jeff Bridges. Lesson learned- help stranger, go directly to mental asylum. Go write that down. Anyway, Dr. Jeff Bridges is very curious about this wonky individual who is placed in his care, and rightfully so, as he claims to be a visitor from another planet. Not Alabama, not Texas, but another freaking PLANET. How crazy is that?

And we spend the next 2 hours believing the incredible yet totally believable things Prot tells us and shows us, yet in the same breath thinking it all the wild ravings of a guy with too little oxygen to the brain and too much jello in his shorts. We go hand in hand with Dr. Jeff Bridges on this magical journey, and the amazingly talented Kevin Spacey walks that fine line between certified nutjob and alien genius philosopher- flawlessly.

But saying that Kevin Spacey is one of the most talented actors of our time is much like saying that Hawaii is surrounded by ALOT of water, or that the moon is REALLY far away. It's a given, and so I'll just assume that you know that, and not dwell too much on the fact. I mean, come on, the man eats a whole banana, peel and all, and we believe it. That takes talent.

Anyway, Dr. Jeff Bridges has more on his plate than just discovering if this fruit munching wacko is really an intergalactic traveler from the planet K- PAX (which sounds to me like it would be in the galaxy of Massengil). He also has the entire Psycho Ward to worry about. You see, Prot claims that on July 27 (the film takes place in the days leading up to July 27, naturally) he will return to his home planet of K-PAX on a beam of light (first class section), and that he will take one of his fellow inmates from the hospital there with him. Ah, to travel to K-PAX, and to join in the festivities of Fruit Days, or maybe see the twin suns as they set over the pineapple shaped city of Fintoozler. That's a journey any sane man would jump at. And so, Dr. Bridges probes Prot (with questions and hypnosis that is, not the way Hollywood Aliens have probed us poor humans) to unlock the secrets of his mind.

And what a mind it is! That's the beauty of K- PAX. In "One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest", we knew who the sane people were and who the jello-stuffers were. But in K-PAX (now with a gentle curved shape for a woman's comfort) the lines between rock-solid sanity and drooling fruitloop are VERY hazy. In one breath Prot demonstrates something that he would know ONLY if he was a genius from another planet, and in the next scene he's forgotten all about fruit and gone COMPLETELY squirrelly on us, keeping us swinging from one belief about him, hard back to the other, and back again before the scene is over. Kevin Spacey makes it all work (I know, I said I'd stop praising Spacey.... but dammit, the man is just so GREAT!).

In short, K-PAX is just a flat-out fantastic film. Jeff Bridges tends to be overshadowed a little by the Spacey performance (did I mention that Spacey rocks?), but both actors do a top notch job of playing and feeding off each other, and work well together to make a nifty little film with a nice little message that's done in a very subtle manner, but there all the same. The other delight in the film are the performances by the various crazy people that inhabit that hospital along with Prot (Ok, it wasn't very politically correct to refer to them as crazy people, and I don't mean to slight these deranged, slobbering lunatics in any way). While each of them are a bit stereotypical, they are all quite likable, even the sweaty guy who tells everyone over and over again that they stink.

I highly recommend K-PAX to just about anyone (unless you stink, or have a fear of fruit). If you like to sit back and marvel at Kevin Spacey's universe of talent; see the movie. If you like movies that leave your mind full of endless possibilities about your world around you, and how you perceive it; see the movie. If you like rooms full of nutty crackpots who spend their lives screaming and scampering around like a bunch of gibbons on a Mountain Dew high whenever a bird flies past the window; see the movie.

Just watch out for that old switcheroo, if you're one of those sane people in need of a life lesson, that is. If you're like the rest of us, enjoy the film, and pass the jello.

And until next time, the balcony is condemned.