Review of K-PAX (2001) by Jean-Francois V — 22 Jun 2009

I might have rated K-PAX higher if I hadn't seen a few films of which it seems to be a composite (and I'm not mentioning Eliseo Subiela's 1986 "Hombre mirando al sudeste", a.k.a. "Man Facing Southeast", of which it seems to be an outright remake.).

The story is simple: a man (Kevin Spacey) who claims to be an alien is brought to the Manhattan Psychiatric Hospital to be treated by a brilliant psychiatrist with family issues (Jeff Bridges.) Is the man (who calls himself "Prot", pronounced "Prote" but curiously spelled without an e) what he claims to be, or is there a naturalistic explanation for his behaviour?

Within a few minutes, I had made a parallel with my second favorite movie of all time, Simon Wincer's "Harlequin" ("Dark Forces"), and I had predicted the film's arc (which I won't reveal, for fear of spoilers.) I also knew that the backstory would be revealed through the kind of verbal interchange that is featured in movies with a similar premise (someone claiming to be something quite extraordinary, like an angel of Father Christmas or whatever.) I never thought of "Birth" (another favourite of mine), but "The Man From Earth" immediately came to mind. It is admittedly a later (and inferior) movie, but it has the same kind of superhuman guru-like figure, who places himself above "Jesus and Buddha" (though "The Man From Earth" is the more blasphemous and anti-Christian of the two; at least you're allowed to bring your Bible to the alien's planet, K-PAX.).

Prot's situation also reminded me of Jeremy Piven's character in the short-lived TV-series "Cupid", who claimed to be the Greek god condemned to live on Earth until he had sparked 99 love stories (or something like that.) The series also dealt with the possibility of Cupid's being mad, especially in an episode where he was confronted to a delusional man who claimed to be Don Quixote.

Finally, the setting (a psychiatric hospital) inevitably reminded me of "One Flew Over a Cuckoo's Nest", with its assorted bunch of likable psychotics. And since Prot undergoes therapy, including hypnotic regression, you could add echoes of other movies where the mystery is gradually revealed through some sort of psychoanalysis (all the titles I'm thinking of are rather mediocre, except perhaps "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution.").

All the art in such a film lies in the director's ability to create ambiguity, and to make audiences really wonder whether the protagonist is or isn't who he claims to be. In "Harlequin", this was done masterfully. Here, the whole film screams "I Want to Believe", and however much credible the two sides are made to be, the whole Christmas-movie atmosphere militates against the naturalistic explanation (which never manages to explain away some of Prot's early superhuman feats.).

What was left for me to enjoy was Spacey's acting, and the hints Prot gave about his home planet. Unfortunately, the latter were also a bit disappointing. K-PAX is just an anarcho-gnostic Platonic utopia, if this is not too much of a mouthful. Wives and children are held in common, people believe in eternal cycles, and the law of the Talion does not apply, though the question about how murderers and rapists are dealt with is artfully evaded.

However, I was particularly glad that the film was pro-vegan, Prot referring to the barbarity of slaughterhouses, and being a (rather hedonistic) fruitarian. How a human being can survive eating only fruit is not explained, though. It's hard enough to get all of one's daily requirements eating all the vegan food groups. If the advice was not so tired, I would say "Don't try this at home" (or you'll die.).

The film also features Brian Howe from "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" (I didn't know they had professional actors in there!), which is all the funnier as K-PAX sometimes reminded me of the aliens in that film (he too seemed to have given up messes.).