Review of K-PAX (2001) by Shane V — 24 Dec 2009

Well worth staying up until 2:00 am and sitting through the SyFy channel's commercials.

A strange man appears in a train station. He calls himself Prot (like wrote) and claims to be from a far away planet called K-PAX. He is sent to the Manhattan Psychiatric Center where he meets Mark Powell, the resident psychiatrist. As Mark talks to Prot, attempting to reveal who he really is but only receiving information about K-PAX, Mark becomes somewhat obsessed with the case and forms a connection with Prot, as do the other patients. Prot proves more and more his amazing knowledge, and Mark begins to doubt his own conclusions.

This is a truly great film. I absolutely loved it. But let's save meaningless praise for later. The acting in this movie is superb. The more you watch it, the more entranced you become by these characters. Although Spacey proves to be the stronger of the pair (only by a small margin), Bridges balances him excellently. Excellent direction and pacing followed up by a very mellow tone work perfectly together in this film. The first half may be just a tad slow, but it really gains momentum leading up the ending. The way the plot unravels keeps you mesmerized until said ending. All the facts and figures blend so well together, by the end you don't know what to believe. But it doesn't lose it's perfect mellow tone and lets you walk away with a great feeling. Despite the plot, this is not a science fiction film. It's a character study. And a damn good one. But its also a soft shock to the imagination. Overall, it's got a great feel, great acting, excellent characters, and a good solid plot along with a fine script. But despite all the science and factuality, it still maintains and sense of almost fantasy all the way to the end. But be warned: this is not a mystery movie. Don't over think it. Therefore, It's not the best film for the extremely analytical. Just go along for the ride. I give "K-PAX" 8.5 beams of light out of 10.

"I wanna tell you something Mark, something you do not yet know, that we K-PAXians have been around long enough to have discovered. The universe will expand, then it will collapse back on itself, then will expand again. It will repeat this process forever. What you don't you know is that when the universe expands again, everything will be as it is now. Whatever mistakes you make this time around, you will live through on your next pass. Every mistake you make, you will live through again, & again, forever. So my advice to you is to get it right this time around. Because this time is all you have." -Prot.