K-PAX (2001)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Iain Softley

Writers (WGA):

Gene Brewer (novel)
Charles Leavitt (screenplay)

Release Date:

26 October 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Is he crazy?...or is he light years ahead of us?

Plot:

Prot is a patient at a mental hospital who claims to be from a far away planet. His psychiatrist tries to help him, only to begin to doubt his own explanations. |

Plot Keywords:

Psychiatrist | Hospital | Thorazine | 1980s | Vegetarian

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Kevin Spacey	...	Prot
Jeff Bridges	...	Dr. Mark Powell
Mary McCormack	...	Rachel Powell
Alfre Woodard	...	Dr. 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
Kimberly Scott	...	Joyce Trexler
Conchata Ferrell	...	Betty McAllister
Vincent Laresca	...	Navarro

Also Known As:

K-PAX - Alles ist möglich (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for a sequence of violent images, and brief language and sensuality.

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

USA | Germany

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Brazil:12 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #38462) | Iceland:L | South Korea:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:PG | Finland:K-11 | France:U | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIA | Ireland:12 | Netherlands:12 | Norway:11 | Peru:14 | Philippines:PG-13 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Spain:T | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12

Filming Locations:

Arvin, California, USA

Company:

IMF Internationale Medien und Film GmbH & Co. 2. Produktions KG

Trivia:

In the novel, one of Prot's favorite movies is Starman (1984).

Goofs:

Continuity: Early in the movie, Mark leaves the city on the train at the end of the day in overcast weather, but when he gets home at 6:30, it's bright daylight outside.

Quotes:

Prot: You seem overly upset, Mark. To borrow a phrase from Navarro, you need to chill.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Will Ferrell/Queens of the Stone Age (#30.19)" (2005)

Soundtrack:

Rocket Man

A Charming, Hidden Gem Of A Movie

It never ceases to amaze me how movies like this get made.

No car crashes, no explosions, no pyrotechnical performances with people screaming at each other or themes/bravura megalomaniacal rants that self-consciously have "Please nominate me for an Oscar" whispering in the Academy's ear.

No, instead we're given a quiet, enormously fascinating, compassionate, well-intentioned film that sits back and realizes that above beautiful cinematography (Which it has in spades), before performances which nail you to your seat (Which it carries in abundance), the most important thing of all is story. And K-Pax despite all "common sense" in Hollywood, throws out every safe-bet to get a movie produced and gives us just that. Wonderful story. Marvelous story.

I don't need to talk about that. Everyone from the science fiction fans (Who appreciated the depth and seriousness of the subject matter) to the warm n' fuzzy brigade (Who "Get the message" of the movie) have done their part to praise the various facets of a film that refuses to be categorized and is simply a very, very good story.

And perhaps because of that, because no one knows precisely what it is, just that's it's wonderful--Not unlike Prot himself--the people who came to this picture and created it have made a film that doesn't slant itself one way or the other but does a wonderful job of juggling seemingly disparate elements--the science, the drama, the message,the psychological aspects--and approach the movie fresh-eyed and innocent. The cinematography is, at times, simply beautiful and inspiring. And Iain Softley obviously had an enormous respect for the material because when it came time to tell the stories and let it speak through the actors, he pulled back, kept it simple and left the audience to witness to incredible performances by Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey to leave viewers with the same feeling; the acting is beautiful and inspiring.

Kevin Spacey's "Prot" is a wonderfully understated character with the gentle, knowing presence of an outsider who understands. It is his very calmness and seeming omnipotence that make his emotional outbursts, when they come, that much more intense and painful for audiences. He brings to the story the delicate sense of ironic humanity that comes from someone who may not actually lay claim to being human.

Jeff Bridges provides the warm, tired, cynical but still hopeful center of the film that provides reality to Spacey's quiet otherworldliness. Jeff Bridges is the much needed Everyman of this movie who is like so many of us out there; intelligent, wanting to do the right thing, essentially a good person at heart who is perhaps little lost and a LOT tired of the shackling nature of every day life in a first world nation. He asks the hard questions, he clings to his perceived reality. But he also wants to help. And all he's looking for is an excuse, some kind of spark to ignite his hope.

I suspect that K-Pax is going to occupy the same space in most people's hearts as that of a good book. I can't see it raking in buzillions of dollars, despite the fact that far, FAR less worthy films do that every summer. Instead, it will carry along, fondly or even maniacally supported by lovers of the film by word of mouth, quietly finding a new audience and making change where ever it goes. It's a gentle, engaging, quiet film that punches viewers between the eyes not through editing, action or shouting, but through that most basic and often forgotten art of cinema, finding a strong story and just letting it tell itself.