K-PAX (film)

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For the book see the article K-PAX.

K-PAX
DVD Cover
Directed by	Iain Softley
Produced by	Robert F. Colesberry Lawrence Gordon Lloyd Levin
Written by	Gene Brewer Charles Leavitt
Starring	Kevin Spacey Jeff Bridges Mary McCormack Alfre Woodard
Music by	Edward Shearmur
Cinematography	John Mathieson
Editing by	Craig McKay
Distributed by	Universal Pictures (USA)
Release date(s)	22 October 2001 (USA)
Running time	120 min
Language	English
Budget	$48,000,000
IMDb profile

K-PAX (2001) is a comedic drama about a mental patient who claims he is an alien. During his treatment, the patient/alien, prot ("rhymes with 'goat' and is not capitalised"), demonstrates an outlook on life that ultimately proves inspirational for his fellow patients and especially for his psychiatrist. The movie was based on a novel of the same name, itself similar to the 1986 Argentinian film entitled Man Facing Southeast. It also bears striking similarities to the 1995 film Eyes Beyond Seeing in which an enigmatic mental patient played by Keith Hamilton Cobb claims to be Jesus.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The story opens with a man who calls himself 'prot' (Kevin Spacey) who mysteriously appears in New York City's Grand Central Station. When he claims he is an alien from a planet called 'K-PAX', prot is handed over to a New York hospital psychiatric ward. A Manhattan psychiatrist, Mark Powell (played by Jeff Bridges), is given the task of treating and "curing" prot of his supposed delusions. As the story develops, Dr. Powell becomes quite attached to prot, and starts to believe his seemingly ridiculous claims.