"K-PAX" treads water. It has some ambition, but hits too many false notes. The film doesn't stir the viewer's emotions, it only slightly nudges them. "K-PAX" is a nice movie, but forgotten as one leaves the theater.

Kevin Spacey plays Prot, a man placed into the Psychiatric Institute of Manhattan for claiming that he comes from the planet K-PAX, located a 1,000 light years from Earth. Jeff Bridges plays psychiatrist Mark Powell, who is assigned to figure out what is wrong with Prot. Difficulties arise when Bridges is unable to discover anything wrong with the new patient.

As always, Spacey is brilliant. His scenes bounce with vibrancy sorely lacking when he is not onscreen. He supplies the film with some light humor, tossing off clever one-liners to many of the buffoonish questions thrown his way. In particular, his gentle mocking of Powell's humanistic psychology tickles the funny bone. Prot chastises the doctor for being an intelligent man who does little early on except repeat what Prot has said.

The real problem with "K-PAX" is Jeff Bridges' character. The film is too much about him than Prot, who is far more interesting to focus on. And, simply put, Bridges is not the right actor for the part. He wears a dead-to-the-world look the entire movie. Bridges as the timeless Dude in "The Big Lebowski" is funny — the fact that the Dude had not changed in years was much of the joke in that film. In "K-PAX," his possible encounter with an extraterrestrial supposedly changes his character's life, yet he has the same lifeless expression on his face and in his eyes.

Dowell's wife (Mary McCormack, "Private Parts"), constantly frets about him. She worries that he is too dedicated to his work. In the end, not much changes, yet she somehow seems to think that a wonderful transformation in their marriage has taken place.

Prot lives with quite a cast of characters in the psychiatric institute — "characters" being a more accurate description than persons. Each of his fellow inmates has one outlandish trait the audience is supposed to recognize. Many of these traits can be seen in other films, most notably "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." In particular, Spacey is drawn to a fellow patient who does not speak, much as Jack Nicholson's McMurphy is drawn to the silent Chief in "Cuckoo's Nest."

The music in the film functions mainly as a distraction. One sharp mind included Elton John's "Rocket Man." What a surprise.

But "K-PAX" does have some excellent ideas. One of Prot's major claims is that every person has the potential to better himself; alas, this interesting idea is stymied by 120 minutes of Bridges' extremely static character. If the events of a film do not even move the main protagonist, how can they move the viewer?

The film sells short the many thought-provoking insights Prot suggests. It never really delves into the questions it poses.

At one point, Prot explicitly refers to Christ and Buddha, just as he is implicitly suggested to be living a life along the lines of those two figures. Unfortunately, the film closes plausibly, but not satisfyingly.

At the end of the film, Prot has come to a believable conclusion; Bridges' psychiatrist has not. The change that Prot supposedly advocates to Dowell is neither sold to him or, consequently, the audience. -- Two shamrocks (out of five)

Contact John Donnelly at jdonel2@nd.edu.

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