K-Pax

K-Pax is a good-looking and thoughtful sci-fi flick with the eternally watchable Jeff Bridges as a hyper-cynical, workaholic New York residential shrink who finds his cosy assumptions challenged when he begins to treat an apparently delusional case.

The patient (Kevin Spacey) claims to be Prot from a planet far, far away with two suns and seven purple moons. At first, this merely represents a change from more atypical schizophrenic alter-egos such as Jesus or Joan Of Arc. Soon though, while seeking to discover what has caused the patient to take refuge in such a bizarre constructed personality, the Doctor becomes increasingly puzzled.

How, for example, does Prot have such precise knowledge of astronomy? How is it that he can see ultra-violet light? Why does he eat enough bananas to feed a bulimic King Kong? And more mysterious yet, why doesn’t he peel them first?

Unfortunately, this film comes up with answers that are considerably more predictable than the promising premise might have allowed for, petering out before it gets somewhere interesting. It also seems to trade on the kind of well-worn Hollywood ‘looney-bin’ conventions that have been handed down once too often since One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest .

Still, the sessions between acting heavyweights Spacey and Bridges provide ample compensation for the film’s more cliched aspects. More importantly, K-PAX manages to be high on feelgood factor without the often attendant need for a sick bucket, and in the context of a mental patient drama that’s almost life-affirming in itself.