I had a chance to revisit The Negotiator as we needed some clips from there for our presentation tomorrow (our presentation topic is 'hostage negotiations' as part of crisis intervention). Kinda rekindled my interest in Kevin Spacey, the same man who brought to life the desperate, depressed, hopeless Lester Burnham from that wonderful movie American Beauty. So in part as a little birthday gift for myself, I bought K-PAX.

What do I have to say about it? I seriously dunno. My language ability just isn't good enough to fully justify my feelings about this movie. Instead, here's what some of the reviewers at IMDB.com had to say. That'll give u an idea on my thoughts on this movie....

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"K-Pax is a very intriguing film. Is Prot (Kevin Spacey) really an alien, or is he a mentally deranged human who just thinks he is an alien? That is the question that Dr. Powell (Jeff Bridges) must answer before the self proclaimed deadline that Prot sets for his departure from Earth.

As the film unfolds and more evidence is uncovered, both theories grow in credibility. His ability to map from memory the area of the galaxy where his home planet is located indicates a knowledge that no human could possibly possess. Yet the hypnosis sessions lead us to a real person with a very real and traumatic life, filled with devastating events that could have caused such a personality aberration. The ending seems to give the answer, but is just ambiguous enough to make you wonder if you really know. Normally, I don't like lady or tiger endings, but this one is tantalizing. I have my own theory that fits all the clues, but I don't know that my theory is any more correct than anyone else's.

Director Iain Softley (`Wings of the Dove') spins the tale delicately, with great skill. This is a rare example of the director staying in the shadows and inducing outstanding acting performances out of talented actors to let the story dominate. This is not to say that the directing is technically inferior, because it is excellent. However, Softley remains unobtrusive, delivering great power through the use of subtlety, a pleasant change from today's vanguard directors who visually grab and shake the viewer as if to scream, `Look how brilliant I am!'

Kevin Spacey once again delivers a marvelous performance as Prot. This is a part that is extraordinarily demanding, requiring Spacey to render the cool and logical Prot one minute, and then switch gears to conjure his tormented alter ego under hypnosis the next. Spacey is so believable as both alien and human, it makes the viewer's task that much more difficult. Jeff Bridges is also terrific as the relentless psychologist who becomes obsessed with learning the truth about Prot." by FlickJunkie-2

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"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." by shoeless-1

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And of course, there's more.

**** WARNING! Possible spoilers ahead ****

One particular part in the movie had the one of the largest emotional impact for me, and that was the hypnosis sessions that Dr Powell (Bridges) did on Prot (Spacey). Under hypnosis, Powell asked Prot to revisit his past, and as each session went by, more and more of a man's tormented past is exposed, yet told by Prot as if he were in fact the friend of this Earthling who would call for Prot everytime something bad happened. By the last session, when Powell had finally pinpointed the time where the most traumatic event may have happened, we see Prot, previously suave and calm and intelligent, turning into a wreck; into someone who was completely shattered by an event that happened on that faithful day. Finally piecing together the information he had, Powell set out to find the real name of Prot, and his life before being a 'K-PAXian'. As what Powell said quietly to his wife after the 'truth' was out (or that's what u think...), you would have wished you didn't know. It was just too sad...

**** End of spoilers ****

The acting was awesome, especially when Spacey regressed into a child, then turned into a swinging teenager, a depressed man, and finally a hysterical man, and then back to the usual calm and collected self in the form of Prot again, all in a matter of minutes during the hypnosis sessions. Although the audience doesn't yet know the exact events that may have turned him into this, seeing Spacey in the counselling chair made you shudder, filling your head with wild theories and guesses as to what really happened. And Jeff Bridges, whom we were introduced as a weary doctor in a busy and over-crowded public mental hospital (he commented in the beginning of the movie that 'the government just keeps throwing anyone off the streets into the hospital'), wonderfully showed the gradual revelation of his purpose in life, and how the relationship with Prot made him want to change some things for the better, which he previously lacked the energy and courage to do.

I'm telling you, this movie has successfully made it into my all-time favourite movie list. Yes, it has definitely occupied a place in my heart. This is one incredible movie. Go watch it! I'd give it 9/10 (one point less for a part of the movie which I thought could have been made better. Nevertheless, doesn't affect the overall effect).

Trivia:

According to IMDB, the role of Prot was originally to be played by Will Smith, while Kevin Spacey was to play the psychiatrist. However, when Will Smith backed out, Spacey then took over the role of Prot and Jeff Bridges took the part of the psychiatrist. Seriously, after watching the movie, I'm not sure who else can deliver the role of Prot to the same effect as Kevin Spacey did. Same for Jeff Briges as the psychiatrist. The intensity of the emotions, it's just not something that is simple to convey, yet both Spacey and Bridges have done it beautifully. Not that I doubt Will Smith's acting ability, but Spacey really brought a kind of power to the character which just connects you to him, and Bridges is just so convincing as the psychiatrist who finds a bond between himself and Prot. The characters seemed to be tailor-made to them, and I can't imagine if anyone else could have carried them off as well.

A picture of young Kevin Spacey appeared in a highschool yearbook in the movie and I thought he looked... hee... comical... =P

In Starman (1984), Jeff Bridges played an alien who takes on the visage of a human being, and is enthralled with a particular Earth food (pie). In K-PAX, he plays opposite Kevin Spacey's alien in human form whose favorite food is fruit.

Did I see Kevin Spacey munching on a banana with its skin on???? Ewwww..... now that's gotta be one of the freakiest parts of the movie...