K Pax Review

I've already expressed my love for Kevin Spacey, so you can guess that he's going to get another ego boost from me in this review of K Pax a film which again shows him to be such a convincing and diverse actor.

This film follows a man who believes he is an alien from the planet K Pax and calling himself 'Prot'. Within 5 minutes of the film, he is placed in a home, believed to be insane. It is at this point that we are introduced to Dr Mark Powell who is portrayed by Jeff Bridges.
Up to this point, i don't think i had really taken much notice of Bridges, but he portrayed the psychiatrist very well, a mixture of a man both 'in' and 'out' of control(soon seen to be in similar ways to Prot).

It's far from an amazing screen play, some of the dialogue is poor, and it feels as if the film could have been taken a lot further but perhaps a lack of imagination(or backing) restricted the areas it explored. Certainly the limited, dull scenery suggested that a small budget had some effect on the film. Also some scene's seemed to be placed into the film simply to create links with events later in the film and with no other purpose in mind.

To be fair to the writers, the plot is more complex than i first felt, and the ending still leaves you questioning what actually happens. You soon agree with the suitable tagline of the film - 'He says he's from the planet K-Pax...you'll want to believe him'. The gradually developments carry this film away from a cheap drama, into a much deeper exploration of the delusional and mentally ill. The characters that originally appear quite basic and 2 dimentional soon have more than meets the eye, and it's the talents of Spacey and Bridges which adds that extra spark to the characters that wouldn't necessarily be there without them being cast.

A great film to watch on a night in, it will make you think, but not too hard...

6/10

Posted in: Film Four, film review, Jeff Bridges, K-Pax, Kevin Spacey