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Dom Robinson reviews
Viewed at
UCI, Trafford Centre, Manchester 
- Cert:
- Running time: 118 minutes
- Year: 2001
- Released: 12th April 2002
- Widescreen Ratio: 2.35:1
- Rating: 4/10
Director:
- Iain Softley
(Backbeat, Hackers, K-PAX, The Wings of the Dove)
Producers:
- Lawrence Gordon and Lloyd Levin
Screenplay:
- Gene Brewer
Original Score :
- Ed Shearmur
Cast :
- Prot: Kevin Spacey
Dr. Mark Powell: Jeff Bridges
Rachel Powell: Mary McCormack
Howie: David Patrick Kelly
Ernie: Saul Williams
Sal: Peter Gerety
Bess: Melanee Murray
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with K-PAX, but in this review I’ll make sure I don’t spoil it for those who still want to see it.
Kevin Spacey plays an alien creature called Prot (pronounced “prote”) who claims to come from a planet 1000 light years away called K-PAX. Arriving in a train station looking like a dishellved bum the first thing he does ,after being spotted by a wheelchair-bound tramp, is to help up an old lady who has been knocked down by a couple of thugs stealing her bag. Mistakenly, the police believe he’s done the dirty deed and take him back to the station, a situation not helped by him stating that he’s come from a far off planet.
We then see him three weeks later after he’s failed to respond to typical medical treatment and he’s palmed off to psychiatrist Dr. Mark Powell (Jeff Bridges, rather sleepwalking through his role) to see if any headway can be made with yet another patient who claims to come from another world. This one appears to be more intriguing and convincing than the average nutter, though.
Kevin Spacey has a banana… sideways.
What follows is an incredibly disappointing two-hour movie, only lifted occasionally by the presence of Spacey on the odd occasion when he gets a chance to shine, but aside from the basics, we don’t find out too much about his planet and the people, only that he’s on Earth to make a report for his people who have a different societal structure than us, he can’t go out in bright light without his glasses, that he’s about ten times as old as he looks – but then of course he’s only assumed an earthling form so as to fit in – and that when July 27th comes around, he intends to head back home with one of the accompanying mental patients in tow, from the mental hospital in which he’s currently locked up.
You keep waiting for some kind of pay-off to occur to make it worth the while of sitting on your bum for two hours, but all you find out is that he’s hiding some kind of secret which needs to be unlocked from his mind, much rather like what a psychiatrist does on a daily basis then, but with the sci-fi element this makes it feel like one of those Quantum Leap episodes with a half-baked storyline stretched out for over twice as long.
On top of this, the film panders too much to Hollywood’s belief that Americans want little more than something to hang on the “feel-good factor” hook, there’s an age-old “bad idea” scenario where the suspected alien is taken to the psychiatrist’s home for the day and things go wrong – so no surprises there – and I lost count of the number of times we were shown Jeff Bridges putting on and taking off his glasses.
Kevin Spacey relaxes in his new home.
Most of the cast don’t have a great deal to do. Powell’s wife Rachel (Mary McCormack) just limps about babbling on about how he’s never around for the family (hence, the film tries to teach you that all things in life matter) and various other mental patients are influenced in certain ways but without much effect.
Maybe if you like your films so undemanding they’ll make you fall asleep, then this one’s for you, but I can’t think why it took them two hours to tell it. It looks like it would have fitted into a 45-minute timeslot with room to spare, hence the aforementioned TV reference.
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2002.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.