K-PAX

Great movie starring the talented Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey. Don't want to say too much to avoid any spoilers, but it's a movie about a guy who's convinced that he's an alien, and the doctor who is trying to help him.

Great film!!!

There are many different reasons for watching a movie, and I suppose I have about as many of them as anyone: sometimes I'll watch a slapstick comedy just for the chuckles, or a grand historical epic so I can be transported to a world that's simultaneously fantastic and familiar, or a murder mystery for the fun of solving a puzzle. But whenever I saw previews or reviews for K-Pax I couldn't for the life of me figure why I'd want to watch this movie. As far as I could tell I knew what the movie was: a character study involving someone who may or may not be an alien, being treated in a mental institution by someone who may or may not believe he's an alien. The way I figured it, he either is or he isn't. If he is, it's a fish-out-of-water story with a sci-fi slant. If he isn't, it's a one-flew-over-the-cuckoo's-nest story with a little ambiguity thrown in but resolved in the end. Neither of these were movies that I'd seek out, but I found myself again and again drawn to watching K-Pax, waiting for the mood to strike me. To be sure, I love Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey in just about anything they've done, and I had no reason to believe I wouldn't be watching a well-made, well-acted movie, just perhaps one not quite to my taste.So imagine my surprise when I found myself stunned by not only the movie's emotional power, but by it's visual beauty. I suppose it's a testament to the limited imaginations of the people who decide how to craft a trailer or a blurb in order to sell a movie, but K-Pax it seems to me has been done a terrible disservice, because it's promotionals all seem to focus on the mystery of "is he or isn't he?", which in my opinion misses the entire thrust of the movie.Amazingly, the director and his cinematographer have deliberately and lovingly crafted a dreamlike fantasy that exists squarely and believably within the everyday world of overworked urban professionals and weary suburban commuters. From K-Pax's opening scene, which follows a feather as it drifts down a column of light into the sun-drenched vastness of Union Station, to the heartbreaking finale, the movie gently but inexorably reveals to us the lives of the two protagonists, and eventually the intertwining of those lives, all the while painting around them a world of ineffable beauty, a world defined by light.I feel I can without reservation place K-Pax squarely within the tradition of those films to which I can go when my reason for watching is to revel in their pure visual beauty, films like Ridley Scott's "The Duellists" and "Bladerunner", or Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" and "Barry Lyndon". It is however Krzysztof Kie'lowski's "Blue" that most often occurs to me when I watch K-Pax, and it's in the company of these great films that I believe K-Pax belongs.

This is a very good movie. Another feel good story. Highly recommend. Even if you find Kevin Spacey's off-screen antics disturbing, you cannot deny that he is a great actor.

I'd like to give this film five stars, but the first 3/4 of it is pretty bad. It drags out all the clichés of psychiatric-hospital films -- "cute" patients, the desire of the staff to medicate patients into submission, the doctor who insists on treating them as human beings, etc, etc, etc.Then -- as Dr Powell (Jeff Bridges) unravels the mystery of who prot (Kevin Spacey) really is -- the story takes the only turn it could possibly take, and becomes a tragedy. If you were expecting a charming story about a sweetly delusional person, you're not going to get it. "Harvey" it ain't.Bridges, a remarkable actor when at his best, isn't here. He doesn't have much to do. This is perhaps fortunate, because the story is partly about how the patient solves the doctor's and patients' problems (yet another cliché), and there's too much of this as it is. Spacey has the plum role, and delivers a characterization that almost convinces us he's an alien.This is one of those "worth seeing once" films. It's recommended on that basis.Addendum: In the novel on which the film is based, prot really is an alien from K-PAX. For me, this undercuts the tragedy at the center of the story. The film's trivial ambiguity (which is easily dismissed) weights the tone in the wrong direction. (Note to Roger Ebert... prot's explanation of the possibility of FTL velocities is correct.)

I have always loved Kevin Spacy, and wanted to see this again instead of having to buy into yet another streaming service. I show it to friends who always love it. I can't say anything else because I don't want to ruin it for you.

ok works good

I absolutely adore this movie!It has such a fantastic story- I'm reading the book right now and together they are perfect!It's rare that the book and movie match each other so closely.The movie always keeps you guessing and engaged, is "prot" really an alien or is he really suffering from some trauma? The impossible becomes the possible and you want to believe that he really came from K-PAX but your logical mind is rooting for the Dr. to figure it out and help him.The movie is full of poignant insight into the human condition with great commentary.The other characters in the movie are engaging also and its just an absolute pleasure to watch it multiple times and share with friends.