A K-Paxian in New York - A Modern Classic (K-Pax (DVD))

Member Name: andrewl

Product:	K-Pax (DVD)
Date:	23/04/05 (136 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Direction, performances, taste

Disadvantages: stuff has been cut

A man turns up at Grand Central Station claiming that he’s from another planet. For some reason, the authorities find this unusual and send him to a psychiatric institution. K-PAX is the story of a psychiatrist attempting to convince this enigmatic stranger that he has constructed an elaborate delusional world.

Based on a fantastic series of novels by Gene Brewer, the cast is headed by Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges. Kevin Spacey used to be an edgy and brilliant character actor. He’s still best known for his Oscar-winning role in American Beauty. Ever since, he has been playing dull men in chunky sweaters. The price of success? Or middle age in action? Spacey is Prot, a man claiming to be aged over 300 and from the planet K-PAX. Over the course of the two hour film, Bridges attempts to treat his new patient as best he can.

So, is Prot really from K-PAX? Or is he just a sad man with a traumatic past? If one criticism could be made of this film, it’s that the answer to this question is a little too obvious. While the books keep you guessing at Prot’s true identity at every moment, they are written from the point of view of the psychiatrist. A film will necessarily cover a larger number of viewpoints, including Prot’s own, and so it is a lot clearer what is going on.

And of course, once you know whether Prot is an alien or not, that sort of removes half the point of watching the film.

Thankfully, however, there’s a little more to it than that. Although Prot’s sessions on the couch with Doctor Mark Powell are clearly the focus of the film, the interactions between Prot and the other mental patients are almost more interesting. Resisting the temptation to set them up as gibbering freaks or figures of fun like Brad Pitt in Twelve Monkeys, director Iain Softley portrays them all as real, if slightly pathetic, characters, all tinged with a gentle sadness as they are aware of their condition and circumstances.

Although the film remains quite tasteful and delicate on the subject of mental illness, there are some great moments of comedy. Prot pretty much takes control of his psychiatric sessions, and it’s a credit to both the scriptwriter and Spacey that his description of the planet K-PAX is so convincing.

I mention that because in other places the dialogue is terrible. Much of the speech is taken from the books, which is rare enough, and in general it’s very effective, but there’s some really stilted moments between the members of Powell’s family. Never mind.

Prot’s central claim about his alien existence is that he can travel along beams of light. This concept is grabbed by the director, who takes every opportunity to show light being refracted through prisms and bouncing off surfaces into the camera. This happens just a few too many times to be truly clever, instead it just looks like showing off. It does generally look awesome, though.

Visually, the film is a triumph. The lighting is generally subdued and sombre, as Prot insists people dim the lights so that his sensitive K-PAXian eyes can cope. Imprisoned behind dark glasses, and with a constant smirk on his face, Spacey uses the opportunities afforded by the lighting levels to his full advantage, catching the light like the great actor that he is. In one session with Powell, he comments that he will be missed when he returns to K-PAX, and half of his face is in shadow, with just the gleam of his left eye available. A striking piece of cinematography.

Spacey also shines during hypnosis scenes later in the film, where he’s called on to portray a small child and a teenager. His ‘young’ voice sounds absolutely perfect, with no attempt to play the scenes for laughs. With Bridges doing superb work as Spacey’s straight man throughout the film, this really is an actor’s masterclass of a movie. I do hope Spacey starts taking on more of these extraordinary roles. Also look out for the early moment when Prot stares at a one-way mirror, straight out at Doctor Powell. For a moment the camera is aligned so that the two characters merge in the glass. Magical.

Editing is a problem. Clearly, a lot of stuff has been cut from the film in order to get it down to a respectable length. We miss hearing about a lot of the patients’ backstories (read the book), and we never hear why they cover up the windows with coloured paper (although it’s presumably so Prot is more comfortable with the light levels). And yet we do get an indescribably tedious title sequence and a silly bit where Prot talks to a dog.

On the other hand, editing within individual scenes is brilliant. The bit where Prot stuffs an entire banana in his mouth is probably just about all that most people remember about the trailer. Of course he doesn’t eat the whole thing, the camera keeps cutting away to Bridges and then back to Spacey with his mouth full of something else. But the rhythm of the sequence is so perfect that you don’t even realise what is happening unless you’re looking for it. By the end, you are completely convinced that Kevin Spacey has just eaten a whole banana, skin and all.

Overall, then, despite little niggles, this film is great. It’s an overlooked classic, full of memorable images. The fact that it came from the director of Hackers probably didn’t help its chances at the box office.

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