Prot: Kevin Spacey
Dr. Mark Powell: Jeff Bridges
Rachel Powell: Mary McCormack
Howie: David Patrick Kelly
Ernie: Saul Williams
Sal: Peter Gerety
Bess: Melanee Murray
I wasn't quite sure what to expect with K-PAX,
but in this review I'll make sure I don't spoil it for those who still want to
see it.
Kevin Spacey plays an alien creature called Prot (pronounced "prote")
who claims to come from a planet 1000 light years away called K-PAX. Arriving
in a train station looking like a dishellved bum the first thing he does
,after being spotted by a wheelchair-bound tramp, is to help up an old lady
who has been knocked down by a couple of thugs stealing her bag. Mistakenly,
the police believe he's done the dirty deed and take him back to the station,
a situation not helped by him stating that he's come from a far off planet.
We then see him three weeks later after he's failed to respond to typical
medical treatment and he's palmed off to psychiatrist Dr. Mark Powell (Jeff
Bridges, rather sleepwalking through his role) to see if any headway can
be made with yet another patient who claims to come from another world. This
one appears to be more intriguing and convincing than the average nutter,
though.
Kevin Spacey has a banana... sideways.
What follows is an incredibly disappointing two-hour movie, only lifted
occasionally by the presence of Spacey on the odd occasion when he gets a
chance to shine, but aside from the basics, we don't find out too much about
his planet and the people, only that he's on Earth to make a report for his
people who have a different societal structure than us, he can't go out in
bright light without his glasses, that he's about ten
times as old as he looks - but then of course he's only assumed an earthling
form so as to fit in - and that when July 27th comes around, he intends to
head back home with one of the accompanying mental patients in tow, from the
mental hospital in which he's currently locked up.
You keep waiting for some kind of pay-off to occur to make it worth the while
of sitting on your bum for two hours, but all you find out is that he's
hiding some kind of secret which needs to be unlocked from his mind, much
rather like what a psychiatrist does on a daily basis then, but with the
sci-fi element this makes it feel like one of those Quantum Leap
episodes with a half-baked storyline stretched out for over twice as long.
On top of this, the film panders too much to Hollywood's belief that Americans
want little more than something to hang on the "feel-good factor" hook,
there's an age-old "bad idea" scenario where the suspected alien is taken
to the psychiatrist's home for the day and things go wrong - so no surprises
there - and I lost count of the number of times we were shown Jeff Bridges
putting on and taking off his glasses.
Kevin Spacey relaxes in his new home.
Most of the cast don't have a great deal to do. Powell's wife Rachel
(Mary McCormack) just limps about babbling on about how he's never around
for the family (hence, the film tries to teach you that all things in life
matter) and various other mental patients are influenced in certain ways
but without much effect.
Maybe if you like your films so undemanding they'll make you fall asleep,
then this one's for you, but I can't think why it took them two hours to tell
it. It looks like it would have fitted into a 45-minute timeslot with room
to spare, hence the aforementioned TV reference.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
