K-PAX film review

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K-PAX

"Don't worry, I'm not going to leap out of your chest", Kevin Spacey jokes to Dr Mark Powell (Jeff Bridges), who is naturally a little wary faced with a patient who insists he's a visitor from the planet K-PAX. The whimsical reference to the Alien films is indicative of K-PAX's lightweight tone and the manner in which it keeps the viewer guessing as to the true identity of the enigmatic Prot (Spacey). Ultimately the film makes no conclusive determination, leaving one only to speculate. The problem with that is that by providing too many unanswered questions, it is more a recipe for frustration than intrigue.

What isn't in doubt are the stalwart performances by Spacey and Bridges. Spacey is perfect as the superior and sardonic Prot, whose only visible acknowledgement to being different are the dark sunglasses he wears at all times because, as he points out, "your planet is really bright". When Prot later reflects, "You humans, sometimes it's hard to imagine how you made it this far", his observations are ambiguously attributable to either a detached cynic or possibly someone viewing this world for the first time. He is, in the words of Dr Powell, "the most convincing delusional I've come across".

Prot arrives at Dr Powell's in rather unfortunate circumstances. Having apparently taken 1,000 light years to reach earth from his planet, he materialises in the middle of Union Square Station at the very moment a thief strikes. Arrested by police as the robber, his insistence that he's just arrived from another planet is enough to get him sent to Dr Powell at the Psychiatric Institute of Manhattan. There he undergoes a rigorous series of tests that determine, unlike humans, he is able to see ultra violet light. Allied with the fact that he is able to accurately sketch the exact orbit of his planet within the solar system, is more than enough evidence to cause Powell to wonder if Prot isn't telling the truth. But Powell's natural scepticism forces him to look for alternative theories and in a detour that only serves to create a smoke screen and slow things down he uncovers a possible clue to the true identity of the strange patient.

Directed by Iain Softley (Wings Of The Dove, Backbeat) and written by Gene Brewer and Charles Leavitt, K-PAX is intelligent and entertaining in the way it uses the notion of life from other worlds to challenge assumptions and raise questions about our own, but ultimately too vague to have a more lasting impact.