TRAVELLING LIGHT (K-Pax (DVD))

Member Name: marandina

Product:	K-Pax (DVD)
Date:	14/06/03 (165 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Superb leads, Brilliantly made, Great story

Disadvantages: Ambiguous ending

Intelligence and the sci-fi genre don't always go hand in hand but when thought and effort do combine then extraordinary things are possible. When you get Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges in the lead roles you know that you're onto a good thing.

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Principal cast:
Kevin Spacey .... prot/Robert Porter
Jeff Bridges ....Dr. Mark Powell
Mary McCormack .... Rachel Powell
Alfre Woodard .... Claudia Villars
David Patrick Kelly .... Howie
Saul Williams .... Ernie
Peter Gerety .... Sal
Celia Weston .... Doris Archer
Ajay Naidu .... Dr. Chakraborty
Tracy Vilar .... Maria
Melanee Murray .... Bess
John Toles-Bey .... Russell

Director: Iain Softley
Running Time: 120 mins
Cert: 12
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Kevin Spacey plays prot, an apparent drifter who turns up in Grand Central Station just in time to be mistakenly held accountable for a mugging. Due to his somewhat confused demeanour, he gets arrested only to claim that he is from another world i.e. K-Pax and has arrived on Earth courtesy of a beam of light. Initially thinking that this guy must be a dope fiend, American due process takes over and he gets referred to a senior psychiatrist, Dr Powell played by Jeff Bridges.

In a studied sequence of interviews, Dr Powell tries to get beneath the veneer of the alien story in an attempt to ascertain the truth. During the course of events, it transpires that prot is operating within a deadline and must return to his home planet at precisely 5.51am on June 27th, 2001. In the meantime, he is here to study the planet along with its inhabitants and the behaviours they exhibit. The dutiful shrink takes the deadline to have an inner meaning by linking it with a possible past trauma and sets about trying
to discover prot's true identity.

In a curious addendum to prot's purpose, he proclaims that he can take one person back with him at the appointed time, thus transfixing most of the inhabitants of the mental clinic who each want to return with him for different reasons.

So it is that the audience is left to work out whether Prot is indeed telling the truth about his non-human origins or is he merely a deranged individual that has suffered a severe trauma some time before.

Ian Softley is a product of Queen's college Cambridge whose main success to date is the Angelina Jolie centred Hackers. Here he directs with an adept touch inspiring the main characters to spark off each other with some great scenes. Working with Bridges and Spacey should give any director a degree of confidence and neither let him down with wonderful performances in their own right. Softley manages to create an authentic look to the home for mainly catatonic characters, each with a blatant idiosyncracy that creates an interesting tangent for the story to follow.

Spacey (American Beauty, Usual Suspects) is simply an icon of the silver screen. His depiction of the alien in cool shades with a more laid back approach to things than a tortoise on valium is magnificent. This is something of a complex role as it turns out as prot's revelations under hypnosis reveal a wholly different, darker side that proves something of a juxtaposition to the main characteristics of prot the alien. Spacey looking like the Cheshire cat from Alice Through The Looking Glass, stretched out on tree branches in the garden of the home is a visual conjuration of Lewis Carroll dimensions. Perhaps Spacey is a little more uncertain in the scenes centred around visits to his counterpart's home but what the hell?

Bridges is as accomplished as they come. Ironically, some 20 years after playing an alien, himself in Starman, he returns to play opposite a debatable visit
or from outer space. He delivers the ponderous, glasses tipped onto the bridge of his nose scientist with great assurance and is totally believable in his part. Bridges paints the picture of a man at the top of his profession struggling to make sense of mounting evidence that his protagonist may even be who he claims to be even if it goes against all his years of practice and beliefs. His verbal sparring with Spacey is a joy backed by a strong script and some wonderful lines. For the most part, Spacey is stirring absently up at the sky/ceiling. When quizzed about the constant wearing of sunglasses, prot replies "Your planet is really bright".

It's inevitable that comparisons will be drawn of a movie that draws on "One Flew Over The Cookoo's Nest" with it's setting against a backdrop of a mental institution even if Jack Nicholson is almost impossible to surpass in the lead in that particular masterpiece. That same feeling of irreverence along with a wry take on existence make it easy to empathise with the incomparable Spacey.

The subplot of taking a nominee back to another planet echoes of Cocoon with a discernible element of comedy making this a heart-warming piece of film. If there is a weakness, it rests with the ambiguous finale. Having succeeded in building a good degree of tension, I found the closing frames a bit of a let down in comparison to what had gone before but then I'm sure that the less than clear conclusion is meant to prompt the viewer to make his/her own mind up. The question of "is he or isn't he?" is kept alive throughout through a carefully crafted screen telling based on the novel by Charles Brewer.

I enjoyed this immensely. It's funny, charming and generates a compelling drama for those fortunate enough to be watching. If there is a message it's probably don't make assumptions because they are almost always wrong although I can't help feeling that thi

s over simplifies what is probably a wonderful screenplay of the book. As prot observes at one point "Don't get me wrong, Mark. You've been very hospitable" (prot smiles).

Highly recommended.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend

Marandina

Video available at Amazon for £8.99
DVD retails for £15.99

Other wonderful lines:
prot: "Don't worry, I'm not going to burst through your chest"

Dr Powell: "What would you say if I told you I think you're as human as I am?" prot: "I would say you're in need of a thorazine drip, doctor"

prot: "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a beam of light to catch"

Summary: