K-Pax (2001)
Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges, Alfrie Woodard; d. Iain Softley; B

Ladies and Gents, meet the alien of the artistic, Deep and Meaningful, "realistic" side of fake Hollywood. No longer do we have to suffer through cheap cardboard spaceships or see actors and actresses speak in distant British accents while scampering about in skin-tight costumes and bad make-up. Our new Klaatu doesn't land in an open space in a large spaceship with an accompanying robot. He comes to us from, apparently, a beam of light that lands him in the middle of Grand Central Station.

Our new alien isn't distinguishable from the rest. He's not green and slimy, he doesn't pop out of anyone's chest, nor does he have on green make-up and tight clothing (and thank goodness he's not wearing the latter). And unlike our peace-loving friend Klaatu, he doesn't tower over the rest nor does he try to conceal the fact that he's an alien. But it's so hard to believe our new alien when he looks so human.

Our new alien's name is Prot (Kevin Spacey).

It's only natural that when our new alien, Prot, lands in Grand Central Station and starts saying weird things like "I require no luggage," we'd throw him in the nut house. That's where the old aliens have got it better than Prot. The deepest thematical meaning they had to deal with is whether or not they're going to take over the Earth, or if stupid, self-destructive humans will do the job for them. They never had to worry about being thrown in the nut house, nor being questioned as to whether or not they were actually aliens. They knew, just like every other terrifyed human who encountered them knew, because they looked alien.

Well, Prot knows he is Spacey, but everybody else (excluding mental patients, who all believe he is Spacey because in the law of Hollywood, if you put a charismatic character in an opressive area, characters not in a role of authority will automatically latch on to every single word this person says in hopes that he/she will cure/free/etc them. This, and also the fact that they are crazy mental patients and don't know any better) thinks he is Kevin. This includes his assigned shrink, workaholic Dr. Mark Powell (Jeff Bridges), to whom Prot enjoys to make sarcastic, Kevin Spacey-like remarks. Dr. Powell wants to help Prot, just like he does any other one of his patients. Yet, like most Hollywood shrinks who also happen to be main characters, he is too incompitent and distant to do so. So, while Powell sits and thinks and ignores his wife (Mary McCormack) who is young enough to be his daughter, and ignores the rest of his family as well, Prot sits around and wisecracks while "curing" patients. Of course, while all of this is happening, time is running out.

Now while I'm on the outside of K-PAX looking in, I see that K-PAX the movie is the cardboard spaceship of that the old alien used to use. It's a 3-D cardboard spaceship with nothing behind it but wooden support. And the alien coming out of the spaceship is Kevin Spacey. The movie doesn't apologize for being a Spacey vehicle, just like Prot never denies he is from his home planet of K-PAX. Spacey is given the freedom to strut himself in front of the camera. He's the Academy Award winning actor, of course. This isn't to say that Spacey's cat walk strut isn't appealing, but Prot has no true distinction from any other Kevin Spacey character. He's charismatic, he's a wisecracker, and he's got quirks that would make anyone stand agape and say "Yo, dawg, his actin is off da hook!" The only thing is that he's good at what he does. Everyone else is pretty much obsolete. The third billed Alfrie Woodard does nothing more than materialize throughout the movie to give everyone's favorite Professional Sassy Black Chick routine as a rather useless psychiratrist, and Mary McCormack does everyone's favorite Scorned Young Mother Married to Much Older Man shtick. Bridges is funny. Not funny ha-ha, but funny as in why did I feel I was impressed with his performance while I was watching the movie, but don't feel the same after? The rest of the cast is good, but, of course, they were all shticks and routines. Nothing breakthrough. They were merely wallpaper for Spacey's display.

I may sound like I hate this movie. I don't. I merely reckognize its flaws. What I love the most about it is that it actually is deeper than the trailer suggests, even though the general theme to this movie may not go any more deeper than "Being with people good, loneliness bad." To my surprise, you can actually have an intellectual debate about Prot. The answer to the question Kevin? Spacey? is left... kind of... open. My only complaints are that I wished it would have been left more ambiguous, and that it would have given us more pieces to the puzzle of Prot's psyche. The script may have good ol' Hollywood cliches but otherwise it's great, with fascinating dialouge and an interesting plotline. In fact, K-PAX is almost like the Memento for the Hollywood crowd. Iain Softley's direction of the film isn't overcooked like an unattended hamburger on a 4th of July grille or undercooked the a hamburger sitting in its package. He lets characters, dialouge, and images speak for themselves. Only a few times does he feel the need to alter or distort images to bring out some artistic flavor. The images are what stuck out in my mind the most. The cinematography by John Mathieson takes on the idea of light travel by heavily using varying shades of light. The score by Ed Shearmur is artistically unremarkable, even thought it does add some emotion to the film, yet still pleasing to the ears. Or to my ears at least.

K-PAX is just about everything you would expect a modern humanoid alien parable to be like. It's not a masterpeice, but it is entertaining.