K-PAX [HD]

Prot: Alien or Delusional Human?
This was one of those powerful movies that I "took personally"--especially since the blue jay is my totem and the blue jay figures a prominent role in this movie.

Kevin Spacey plays a psychiatric patient named Prot--but Prot claims he's really an alien from the planet K-PAX. Jeff Bridges plays Prot's psychiatrist and is convinced that Prot is delusional. But the Doctor's cynicism soon turns into fascination. Could Prot possibly be an alien? Or is there a perfectly logical, "earthly" reason for Prot's belief that he's an alien?

I don't want to give away any plot points, but this movie is thought provoking and utterly fascinating. You'll be scratching your head at the end--but a part of you will "get" it even if your mind does not. Some mystical themes I enjoyed in this movie is the existence of aliens, the possible messages of aliens, the power of belief in something beyond yourself, and the power of the mind.

To Be or Not to Be........
Some people have complained that this movies ending is ambiguous and the director doesn't tell the audience whether Prot is really from K-Pax or just the delusional Robert Porter. It's true, but that's what I found so fascinating about the movie and it's premise.

The story stars two of my favorite actors, Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges. They put on these roles like a comfortable pair of shoes and it isn't long before we feel we've known them for years. Every actor brings their best work to the show and you can't help but be interested and drawn into the story. Whether you believe Prot is real or Robert Porter is just a very tortured man, there are plenty of ambiguities for everyone.

I usually like a movie to be tied up nicely and all the loose ends resolved by the time the credits role. K-Pax is the exception. I appreciated the director laying out the wonderful story with its drama, humor and sadness and letting us draw our own conclusions based on the events as they unfold...

A Subtle and Imaginative Drama
This superbly acted drama about an extraterrestrial named Prot, grabbed my attention from beginning to end. Kevin Spacey is rapidly becoming one of our very finest actors. The depth of his performance in this film deserved an Academy Award nomination. Jeff Bridges, as the psychiatrist in charge of Prot, gives another solid performance. This movie works on many levels. Prot claims to have come on a beam of light to earth, and he leaves in the same manner. Like the character in 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance', Prot's consciousness comes in over that of Robert Porter, who is a catatonic. While on earth, Prot solves the perturbations in the orbit of the binary star of K-PAX, disappears for 3 days from a secure facility, and generally displays knowledge that no one on earth could possess. Yet no one will believe Prot is not from earth, despite all of the evidence. This is typical of the human mindset, which disavows anything that is not 'common knowledge'.
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