Good movie. This joins the ranks of other great movies set in mental institutes. For some reason movies about crazies work well these days. Perhaps because, as one English prof used to say, nobody is quite sure "who's crazy." That's just about the jist of it. Spacey, again, proves himself an excellent actor. Though, I am not sure he has yet transcended Hollywood. (one of my beefs is that Hollywood actors play themselves and not their characters. Contrast Peter Sellers, the perfect example of non-Hollywood acting, and Mel Gibson, the Hollywood actor)
In any event, a very good film there is a lot of emphasis on light and things are nice visually, but the great achievement is characters and character development. The film wants you to believe that Spacey is an alien, and the crazies really start believing him. Then, so do a bunch of rocket scientists. The idea is that you must take a leap of faith and admit like medieval church Credo quia absurdum est. (I believe because it is irrational). It may defy explanation or the way we see the world, but it would truly be the best way to explain things. This goes against so much of the things the modern world holds to be so. And if you are truly a modern, there is an easy explanation for you. The romantics, those who leave room for doubt, or those who have faith in the point of view and decency of others, in short, - the crazies - have a harder time. Maybe I'm saying that because I'm either sympathetic with or a crazy myself. The lever in the plot is Jeff Bridges - the shrink. He is the one that must be convinced that Spacey is from the planet K-Pax.
The ending is good. It leaves open the question of who's crazy. I like it. Nicely filmed, good story and great characters. Not that original though.
On the official Chris' Choice scale K-PAX gets three stars.
***
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