K-PAX

Released 2001
Stars Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges, Mary McCormack, Alfre Woodard, Brian Howe
Directed by Iain Softley
Reviewed May 9, 2002

MAJOR SPOILER ALERT -- Beware this review gives away everything about the movie...

I wasn't too impressed with this movie at first, because the first act is so openly sentimental and preachy. Eventually it grew on me, though, with its science and playful nature. There's not a lot of science, but that's what I'm going to concentrate on since I found it the most interesting. The idea of aliens visiting our planet from outside our solar system is just a silly idea due to the logistical problems. In order to come here, a vehicle would have to travel at the speed of light or faster, and even at those speeds it would take many lifetimes. Also, as Einstein has theorized, nothing with mass (weight) can travel faster than the speed of light. Prot (Kevin Spacey) talks about an aspect of this theory in the movie, and it's very important. A milestone was set last year when scientists were able to move something faster than the speed of light for the first time. I don't remember the details, but they recorded an energy burst that fully exited a test chamber before it had fully entered. What a mind-blowing concept. I was shocked that the speed of light barrier had been broken, but it had been broken with a burst of energy that had no mass. Einstein's theories still held, but what good is it being able to move energy that fast? If we want to travel to another galaxy, we need to send our bodies. We couldn't just send energy... Could we?

One of the best aspects of "K-PAX" is that it's open-ended. Is Prot truly an alien from K-PAX, or is he the alter-ego of Robert Porter? An alter-ego created in defense to his horrifically traumatic event. It's open to interpretation, and my interpretation is based upon one of Prot's final comments to Dr. Powell (Jeff Bridges). When he notices the doctor has discovered Robert Porter, he tells him to "take care of Robert when I'm gone." It was at that moment that it hit me like a ton of bricks. He had been telling us throughout the movie that he traveled at six times the speed of light to Earth. As I said before, we don't believe that's possible if he were to travel with his body because of its mass, but he didn't travel with his body. Somehow Prot's people had invented a way of capturing their essence (their intellect, personality and soul) and transmitting it through space into a waiting vessel. Prot was simply inhabiting Robert Porter's body, and his goal in the movie was to find a way to help his friend. That's why the movie opens with him looking to be arrested and taken to a mental institution. His goal was to find a good doctor who could help Robert after he returned home. Once he made that comment to Dr. Powell, everything became clear to me, and I let go and accepted everything.

Of course, there are many holes in the story. The biggest (pun intended) being Bess. The movie was careful to construct a plausible possibility for Prot's travel, but then it had him returning to K-PAX with Bess. Not with her essence, if you will, but with her enormous body. Oops... The movie telegraphed a lot of its sentimental moves, and I knew he would choose Bess. After all, if you had a crew of colorful mental patients to choose from, wouldn't you choose the catatonic who hadn't spoken to anyone for 25 years? I mean who would be better company than that. Ok, I'm being facetious. I know personal satisfaction wasn't Prot's motivation. He was a Christ figure, which made Bess the logical and emotional choice.

I'm a sucker for a movie that has a character trying to deal with a traumatic event like Robert Porter's, since I also went through something like that. I know what it's like to try to heal, and to try to deal with the loss. To try to deal with the prospect of getting out of bed each day without that person.  The worst part is the all-consuming guilt that you should have been able to do something to prevent it, to save that person. There's also guilt for the things you said and didn't say, and for the things you did and didn't do. It's one thing to lose someone to an accident or natural causes, but it's completely different to have someone taken away. It's been 19 years for me, and I still can't talk about it. I was never free from it after it happened, and my mind had its own defense mechanisms. There were times when I went off the deep end, and there were a handful of times that were physically frightening--to myself and the people around me. I struggled for about a year and a half before I started to be normal again, and today I feel pretty damn lucky I didn't end up like Robert Porter.

Reviewed by Bill Alward Home
 

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