K-Pax

REVIEW
In Starman, Bridges plays an alien visitor hunted by the military. A few years and many terrific performances later, Bridges finds himself on the opposite side of the chase, so to speak, as Dr. Mark Powell, a psychiatrist who races to cure a man who claims to be an alien. As marvelously played by Spacey, that man is Prot, visitor from the distant planet K-Pax. Prot wears sunglasses (our planet is "too bright"), bonds well with his other patients at the hospital where he's been confined, and, quite bafflingly, knows things about astronomy and physics that he really shouldn't. K-Pax is at its best, which is most of the time, during the compelling scenes between doctor and patient -- Prot is as determined and prepared to prove he is an alien as much as Powell is to show he's not. Is he or isn't he? Well, that's where K-Pax wants it both ways. And in doing so, it digs a hole for itself in trying to maintain this ambiguity till the very end, stumbling in the process. Fortunately, there are Bridges and Spacey to allow us to forget the incredulities of the appealing if problematic premise. Bridges brings comfort and calm to the role of the caring doc, whose compassion comes at the price of his own family dynamic. Spacey plays Prot with just the right amount of awareness, humor and childlike wonder. Ultimately, K-Pax is a little too slowly paced, but it gets by on plenty of heart, and two entrancing performances.