K-PAX turns 25 this week, so it’s a fitting moment to revisit the 2001 science-fiction mystery that sent Kevin Spacey to the Psychiatric Institute of Manhattan as a patient who claims he comes from the planet K-PAX, 1,000 light years away in the Lyra constellation. In the story, psychiatrist Dr. Mark Powell tries to cure prot of his apparent delusions, but prot is unwavering in his detailed answers about K-PAX and its civilizations.
Will Smith was offered prot
The casting could have gone a very different way. Will Smith was offered the role of prot/Robert Porter. Kevin Spacey was originally offered the role of Dr. Mark Powell, but instead landed the role of prot.
Prot could see ultraviolet light
Inside the film, prot’s medical examination only reinforces his story: he can see ultraviolet light and is completely resistant to the effects of Thorazine. He also faces a group of astrophysicists who are befuddled by his highly detailed knowledge of a star system they had not known before. Prot claims he journeyed to Earth by faster-than-light travel and says he can take one person with him when he returns.
USA Today called the title the year’s worst
Claudia Puig at USA Today did not hold back, writing that the movie was “saddled with the year’s worst title.” She added that it was “shackled by its own overreaching sense of importance and foggy earnestness.”
Roger Ebert gave it three stars
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave K-PAX three stars out of four. He wrote: “I admired how the movie tantalized us with possibilities and allowed the doctor and patient to talk sensibly, if strangely, about the difference between the delusional and that which is simply very unlikely.”
Critics split, audiences were kinder
K-PAX received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 42%, based on 141 reviews, with an average rating of 5.10/10. On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 49 out of 100, based on 31 reviews, while audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it an average grade of B+. A. O. Scott of The New York Times wrote: “K-PAX is a draggy, earnest exercise in pseudo-spiritual uplift, recycling romantic hokum about extra-terrestrial life and mental illness with wide-eyed sincerity.” For Variety, Robert Koehler wrote that the film “gives off a great deal of light but generates little heat in a drama that aspires to cosmic themes but ends up with plain, comforting homilies.”
It won opening weekend
Commercially, the film opened strong. K-PAX grossed $17.5 million and ranked number 1 in its opening weekend ahead of Warner Bros.’ Thirteen Ghosts and 20th Century Fox’s From Hell. It plunged into fourth place when Monsters, Inc. was released during its second weekend.
It still missed its budget
That start was not enough. The film was a box-office disappointment, making only $65,001,485 worldwide vs. a budget of $68 million, including $50,338,485 in North America and $14,663,000 internationally.
Which K-PAX detail stayed with you—the casting what-if, the ultraviolet eyesight, or the budget math?
Facts from Wikipedia: K-PAX, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Film images from TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.