Directed by:  Iain Softly
Written by:  Charles Leavitt
Adapted from the novel by:  Gene Brewer
Starring:  Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges, Mary McCormack, Alfre Woodard, David Patrick Kelly
 

October 25, 2001

         In the beginning of Kevin Spacey’s new film K-Pax, he beams into Grand Central Station, witnessed by a man in a wheel chair that apparently hangs out there all the time.  We know this because the cops that subsequently arrest Spacey know the wheel chair man by name.  If this ridiculous opening sequence isn’t enough to show you this is going to be a cliché ridden heap of feel-good alien psychiatry rubbish, then you can stay for the uneventful, unfunny over two hour film that calls itself K-Pax.
         K-Pax is the planet in the Lyra galaxy system where Prot (Spacey) is from.  After arrested, Dr. Mark Powell (Bridges), psychiatrist, tries to cure Prot, because he must be mental.  The whole rest of the film consists of trying to figure out if this is going to end like Starman or The Fisher King, coincidentally two films Jeff Bridges starred in.
         Is Prot real or is he a fake?  The real question is: Who cares?  There are so many alien movie clichés here mixed with doctor patient scenarios and it all leads up to the most ludicrous hypnosis scene ever.  At least in Woody’s The Curse of the Jade Scorpion this year, it went toward comedic ends; here Spacey is just trying to show off that he can act again by crying.
         Nearly all the jokes in K-Pax fall flat, especially the ones that involve fruit and dogs.  The score is used to fill in holes where they couldn’t write a better scene.  And of course Dr. Powell has an estranged family who Prot must help in some way to bring back together. 
        At least we have the one scene Jeff Bridges is becoming famous for, that’s in both Blown Away and Arlington Road: running toward the camera with his hair flying back in slow motion during a climatic scene.  If nothing else, that one scene made the trip to K-Pax worth it for me.  For you though, I would suggest staying home, making it a Jeff Bridges night, and rent the obvious original to K-Pax, Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King, or it’s alien counterpart, John Carpenter's Starman. 

Alternative Recommendations:  The Fisher King, Starman (both s: Bridges), The Usual Suspects (s: Spacey), Cocoon,  E.T. 

-Reviewed in Theater (at Advanced Screening)-