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 he immediate question brought up by K-Pax is rather
the character Prot is an alien visiting from the planet K-Pax 10,000 light years
from Earth or is he just a tortured soul repressing unhappy memories from his
past. This is the question that many people who watches director Iain Softley's K-Pax
will ask, although they will have quickly realized 2/3rds of the way into the
film that the question is moot, because it really doesn't matter if Prot is an
alien or a human loon.
K-Pax stars Kevin Spacey as Prot, a disheveled
looking man wearing dark shades who seems to appear out of thin air at a New
York train station. He finds himself arrested and thrown in a psychiatric
hospital for evaluation. There, tests are run on him that produces odd results,
baffling the staff. Prot claims to be an alien visiting Earth, and will have to
return home soon, and this supposedly accounts for the strange results. Dr. Mark
Powell (Jeff Bridges) is given Prot's case, and the good doctor, unconvinced of
Prot's claims, attempts to break through Prot's barrier and discover the real
reason Prot is playing alien. Meanwhile, in the hospital background, Prot begins
to have strange (and positive) affects on the rest of Powell's patients.
So is Prot an alien or isn't he?
K-Pax is adapted from the novel of the same name by
Gene Brewer. Not having read the book, I can't say rather the movie is a
faithful adaptation, but judging by the movie alone, I must say that I enjoyed
Prot's story tremendously. Although Prot takes center stage with his many
eccentricities -- such as eating fruit without peeling -- much of the movie's
reflective moments come with Bridges' Powell and his family. The female head of
the Powell household is Rachel (Mary McCormack), who is feeling more than a
little ignored by her husband.
The couple has 3 kids but they mind as well have
none from all (or lack thereof) the amount of quality time dad spends at home
and with the family. Even when they're together, they're emotionally in
different worlds. It's an ironic twist to see Powell attempt to cure his
patients of all their problems while he seems oblivious to his own. His marriage
is disintegrating before his eyes -- or our eyes, as Powell doesn't seem to
notice.
Kevin Spacey, as Prot, gives an ambiguous performance, but
a very charming one. We're never sure if he is an alien or if he just thinks
he's an alien. In a way, one gets the feeling even Prot isn't sure. When Powell
begins performing regression hypnosis on Prot, information starts to come to
light that sheds suspicion on Prot's claim of being an alien.
So is he or isn't
he an alien? Powell is determined to find out, but Prot seems undisturbed by the
prospect of being "uncovered." You see, Prot's waiting for a specific
date to return home on a "beam of light." As Prot's people, K-Paxians,
have already mastered the art of traveling by light, he can come and go as he
wishes. Unfortunately, there's so much "light travel" going on in
space that Prot has to wait for a specific window to travel back home. What
causes trouble for Powell and the hospital staff is that Prot has promised to
take one of the many eccentric patients in the hospital home with him. Who will
it be? Is Prot even an alien? Is he crazy? Is light travel really possible?
K-Pax has no clear answers. Even when Powell makes a
tremendous discovery, the question of Prot's "real" identity remains a
mystery. Is he or isn't he? Writer Charles Leavitt and director Softley tells us
it doesn't matter, because that question is only a McGuffin. The real story is
about focus.
The movie's main theme (and its recurring motif) concerns
light travel and light itself. What does light do? Light clears out darkness.
Light makes what is hidden visible. Light brings things into focus. And
that is the real point of K-Pax. It's about the little things in life
that we lose focus of. One of those things is family. As Powell attempts to
diagnose Prot, he never once considers diagnosing himself. His life is
unfocused, as are the lives of most of the people in the hospital. Are these
patients really crazy or have they just lost focus of what matters most? Prot
brings things into focus for everyone, including Powell. Is this the work of an
alien or someone who has convinced himself that he's an alien, and thus can
perform "alien-like" miracles. Is it all mental or something more?
In the end, rather Prot is a K-Paxian, or if there's even a
real K-Pax, is unimportant.
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