I am a fan of sci-fi movies. Two primary elements of the movie K-Pax directed by Ian Softley was that it was a movie about a man claiming to be an alien from a star light years away from the earth and that the lead role of the man was played by Kevin Spacey.
From his spectacular performance in “American Beauty”, Kevin Spacey never let me down in any of his movies. He became a kind of guarantee for me that I would not, at least, fall asleep while watching any movie he starred in.
The movie “K-Pax” does something amazing. From the beginning to the end, there is not a single scene of spaceships hovering in the sky, battles between humans and aliens, and no worldwide explosion. As a matter of fact, most of the story happens within a psychiatric ward where police sent Prot, a self-claimed alien, and a psychiatrist (Jeff Bridges) tries to find out his real identity. But you don’t have a problem in calling the film a great sci-fi movie.
The single question that captures attention of viewers in the movie is, “Is he just crazy or really an extraterrestrial?” As story develops, you are given clues that support both possibilities. Whenever new clue pops up, you think about what it means and this mind game inside your brain really makes watching K-Pax a great experience.
Unlike other sci-fi movies, K-Pax makes you think and see more than what you see on the screen. I have recently watched Inception and was greatly impressed by the ingenuous actions scenes and story. But K-Pax offers almost the same level of excitement and engagement as Inception. Given the budget difference between the two movies, this is just amazing.
Although I roughly call K-Pax sci-fi movie, that does not mean that it is only for sci-fi fans. Based on your interpretation, this movie also can be a thriller, detective movie, or whatever kind of genre. I cannot write much about the story itself as that will take much of fun when you see it for yourself. One thing I can tell for sure is that you will not miss your 120 minutes spent on watching this movie.