| Product: |
K-Pax (DVD) |
| Date: |
08/06/03 (156 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Completely different to anything else out there, Fantastic acting, Makes you THINK...
Disadvantages: None at all
A man (Kevin Spacey) carrying no luggage just "appears" in Grand Central Station New York. Mistaken for a mugger he is questioned by the police. As he states “That he had forgotten how bright this planet is” he is, rather unsurprisingly assumed to be a nut and taken to the nearest hospital for assessment. The hospital however, cannot find anything physically wrong with him. No signs of substance abuse, no brain tumour, no epilepsy; in fact nothing that would account for his persisting "delusions".
He is then transferred to the care of Dr Mark Powell (Jeff Bridges) and we learn this mystery mans name is Prot (rhymes with boat). He claims to come from the planet K-PAX, which is 1,000 light years from Earth and in what we would call the constellation Lyra. He says his planet is around twice the size of ours and orbits the twin suns of K-Mon and K-Ryll, the stars we would call Agape and Satori. The planet K-PAX he tells us has no family structure, that there are no laws or government; as every being in the world knows right from wrong there is no need for them! How did he get to Earth? On a beam of light of course at six multiples of C. Travel has to be faster than the speed of light as Prot quite rightly points out, otherwise the journey would have taken a thousand years…
To my mind, Kevin Spacey quite simply shines in this movie with his exceptional portrayal of Prot. He brings him to life with some very simple mannerisms. From his shuffling walk to the way he cocks his head on one side especially when looking around doorways; his half smile and the simple way Prot looks at the world all add up to a wonderful character and Kevin pulls it off with aplomb. His character has an awful lot of dry humour and wit and Spacey achieves the perfect balance of delivering his lines whilst keeping up Prots mostly deadpan face. He also adds a very cheeky little smile when needed and the way that animates the role he is playing
is amazing. The role of Prot simply gets better as the movie progresses, the hypnotic scenes towards the end are fantastic and Spacey did an awesome job in my mind to pull them off as well as he did.
Im not a fan of Jeff Bridges; in fact I could go so far as to say I usually avoid his movies, as unless the film requires little acting on his behalf hes dire in my opinion. However in this he is fantastic. Granted hes not exactly got to over-tax his skills playing the Doctor and occasionally his grimacing and pouting face manages to make me wince, he played the role extremely well and had clearly done a lot of research into psychiatry before filming began.
During the many scenes that Spacey and Bridges are the only players, they work so very well together. The two actors seem to have built up quite a rapport between the two of them and they certainly matched each other and fitted together perfectly. One plays off the other well and neither are trying to "grab the glory" in the acting stakes. They dont need to in any case, their individual roles shine but for different reasons!
Of course, any lead roles have to be well supported and this is exactly what happens here. The fabulous additional character roles are all very well cast and acted which certainly helps to turn K-PAX from a simply good movie into a fantastic one. As this film is predominantly in a mental institute there are plenty of characters for Prot and the Doctor to interact with, from a woman with multiple personalities to an obsessive-compulsive. All of these characters have again clearly been well researched and so the actors/actresses playing the parts do so very convincingly and with a great deal of sensitivity to the issues involved with playing the parts of people who are ill. There are some nice little touches throughout the film involving the more perimeter characters; theres a nice touch when Dr Powell is on his train going home and is asked to donate money
by a guy wearing a "beam me up" T-shirt and a metal cap; the stereo-typical "person claiming to come from another world"…
So is Prot really from the planet K-PAX? Is he an amnesiac or a drug user? Does he have multiple personalities or some kind of psychosis? Sure he can describe life on his planet in great detail and show how K-PAX moves through space around the twin stars but does that make him genuine? He is also sensitive to UV light a feat that no human can achieve; again does this make him a true "alien"? The mystery element to this movie is one that keeps the viewer watching and guessing all the way through, but this isnt the main point to the film by a long way.
Prots character is very innocent almost child-like. Human beings have the in-built need to put people into little boxes. We all do it and most of the time without even realising it, but we do it to feel safe and secure. Whether it be by race or religion, by dress or lifestyle we ALL put people into comfortable little niches. As Prot describes an upbringing and life on K-PAX that was the total opposite to how we do things here on earth, he is not hemmed in, imprisoned by this way of thinking. When people talk to him he genuinely listens, he does not judge people as he does not need to put people into categories in order to feel secure. If he really is human doesnt the fact that he does not think or reason as the rest of us do still make him "alien" to us and our concepts of how the world functions?
How do we as humans deal with someone who we come across who acts like Prot? Well we have to pop him into one of those understandable categories for our minds to accept him. He cannot be from another planet as that doesnt fit with our egotistical way of thinking. We as a species are very much "up ourselves" and the thought that any race could be way more than advanced that ourselves doesnt sit well with the general populous.
Therefore Prot MUST be delusional; its the only thing that fits. But on the other hand, as he claims to have knowledge about another world he must be tested, made to prove himself.
This movie truly challenges the way we look at the world and all of the people we come into contact with every day. This is THE point to the whole film. When we come across those harmless people who dont think the way the rest of us do, does that make them wrong? Does it mean theyre ill? For the most part, humans are raised in this world to conform, to all think the same way; when they dont there must be something wrong with THEM. Why? Surely differences are what makes this planet of ours special…
In todays day and age when special effects and hype seem to be the only thing that go hand in hand with movie releases, this movie makes such a refreshing change. This is a character piece at its very best.
I cannot recommend this film highly enough to you all.
Directed by Ian Softley, run time 115 minutes, rated 12.
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