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Posted: |
Nov 1, 2001 - 3:20 AM
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By: |
solarwnz
(Member)
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I always find movies more enjoyable when the themes are philosophical, intelligent, deeply emotional, and just happen to coincide with current events in my life. That may be a truism but it remains a fact none the less. As I get older(27) I find that those movies which, had messages and meaning that eluded me, are now speaking to my sense of experience and resonating with my desire for understanding. One such film that moved me in this way was the recently released K-Pax I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Was there anything new under the sun here? Well, not really but it was executed with considerable charm! As most of you know, the movie is about a man named Prot(Kevin Spacey) who claims to be from a planet called K-Pax. Since Prot has no home or identification he is brought to a psychiatric hospital in NY City where his therapist, Mark,(Jeff Bridges)finds him to be a most "convincing delusional". There is the crux of the plot - is he or isn't he from another planet? The film gives the audience evidence for both positions and will keep you guessing the whole time. The power of this story is Prot's magically hypnotic interaction with the various people he meets. He brings healing to so many of them. His honesty and intelligence is infectious. I think a few reviewers made the allusion to the Christ motif. (Of course the character archetype of someone who brings healing, wisdom and is not of this world is older than Christ himself.) Jeff Bridges' character gives us the audience's perspective and does a fine job playing a middle class father with a family dysfunctionality in need of an extraterrestrial's touch. The irony is in the transference between Prot and Mark. Mark is skeptical of Prot and wants to get to the bottom of his psychosis. But Prot ends up turning the couch around on Mark. In fact, as Prot moves through the story, his aura of mystique takes on a sincerity and likeableness that, obviously, is designed to make each of us want a Prot type person in our lives. But why? What can be learned from this movie? Without giving anything away I will simply answer that this film illuminates the age old question of, "is this all there is?" The solution we all feel is that without some over-arching structure to our lives: religion/spirituality, political affiliation,, purposeful and meaningful work, we are devoid of any importance and our existence's come into being and blink out into nothingness without so much as a goodbye from the universe. Those without that meaning-generator become like the lost souls in K-Pax. When a Prot comes along(as they often do in our history) we latch on and/or follow them to see if they can take us to that place we can't find ourselves - a world away from this one. This philosophical underpinning was what made K-Pax such an enjoyable film for me. They writers nicely contrasted that metaphysical yearning with the secular reality of being human, having feelings and needing each other. Through the lens of psychology we get a rational explanation but not a satisfying one. For those people whose meaning-generators are working and are firmly in place, this film will seem like old school notes reviewed - no revelation here. For them, this movie will either fall on the, overly sentimental, new age-schlock side of the fence or the cold, skeptical, uninspiring side. I happen to be in-between spiritual paradigms at this point in my life so, as an audience member I found myself asking how I can resolve this essential tension between my desire for spiritual transcendence and my desire for scientific understanding. The film attempts an answer and it's a good one! It's not definitive, but it is good. Like I said, I'm not going to give anything away but suffice it to say, The Wizard of Oz put it best: no need to look for answers beyond your own back yard. Yet, that yellow brick road keeps calling... It's nice to see a film that helps expand one's thinking instead of hindering it. Thank you K-Pax. Beautifully filmed, utilizing lots of light beams, sun flares and sparkling rainbows, the look of this film is perfectly married to the other element of this film that was superb,(in my opinion)Edward Shearmur's electronically organic and effective score. Right from the start of the film, Shearmur finds the pace and provides sweet ambience coupled with trance like beats and an innocent short piano motif. Working with an eclectic mix of instruments from marimba to synth drums, Shearmur's score sounds like Paul Oakenfold meets Thomas Newman with a splash of James Newton Howard. Thematic material is small but the real richness of this score is in how restrained and yet hypnotically beautiful its texture and emotive colors are. Shearmur combines natural orchestra with smooth electronica that brings forth an appropriate and mesmerizing score. If you’re a fan of the techno pulse/soundtrack flavor of modern car commercial music this score will seem like a luxury car opera. For fans of pure orchestra this may not jive with you but for those of us who relish in the diversity of sound scapes (And come'on. Who doesn't?) K-Pax is a winner.
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Posted: |
Nov 1, 2001 - 5:13 AM
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By: |
swoony
(Member)
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For the life of me, I don't know why, I liked K-PAX, even though I believe that the dialogue (especially the ones that WERE NOT between Prot and the doctor) to be cliches. Note: no great spoilers coming up, but there may be some... When Alfre Woodard's character said a line about "being too close to a patient," I said it along with her. Things that would be common sense is not done in this movie. Pictures are never found. Something is found on a website, but never read, people who are utterly convinced about Prot suddenly lose interest, a character does a horrible act to another character, and we see him walking around in a later scene as if nothing happened. THe last minute dash seems so contrived. Someone would have been looking at the clock. Things like that drive me bonkers!!!!! And yet, because of the direction (beautiful to look at), the music (I agree, one of the best of the year) and especially the performances, I did like it.
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Posted: |
Nov 1, 2001 - 5:13 AM
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By: |
swoony
(Member)
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For the life of me, I don't know why, I liked K-PAX, even though I believe that the dialogue (especially the ones that WERE NOT between Prot and the doctor) to be cliches. Note: no great spoilers coming up, but there may be some... When Alfre Woodard's character said a line about "being too close to a patient," I said it along with her. Things that would be common sense is not done in this movie. Pictures are never found. Something is found on a website, but never read, people who are utterly convinced about Prot suddenly lose interest, a character does a horrible act to another character, and we see him walking around in a later scene as if nothing happened. THe last minute dash seems so contrived. Someone would have been looking at the clock. Things like that drive me bonkers!!!!! And yet, because of the direction (beautiful to look at), the music (I agree, one of the best of the year) and especially the performances, I did like it.
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Posted: |
Nov 1, 2001 - 5:13 AM
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By: |
swoony
(Member)
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For the life of me, I don't know why, I liked K-PAX, even though I believe that the dialogue (especially the ones that WERE NOT between Prot and the doctor) to be cliches. Note: no great spoilers coming up, but there may be some... When Alfre Woodard's character said a line about "being too close to a patient," I said it along with her. Things that would be common sense is not done in this movie. Pictures are never found. Something is found on a website, but never read, people who are utterly convinced about Prot suddenly lose interest, a character does a horrible act to another character, and we see him walking around in a later scene as if nothing happened. THe last minute dash seems so contrived. Someone would have been looking at the clock. Things like that drive me bonkers!!!!! And yet, because of the direction (beautiful to look at), the music (I agree, one of the best of the year) and especially the performances, I did like it.
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Don't know what happened. I pressed the button, and BAM, 3 replies. You can never have too many opinions, even if it's the same one. Ohh, I wouldn't bet the farm on that...
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And whatever happened to Edward Shearmur?? He was a rising star in the early 2000's. I would love to hear his music return to scoring the bigger movie releases. His 2002 score to The Count of Monte Cristo is another favorite of mine. YEAH, THOSE ARE the two scores of his in my collection!!!! brm
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This score is one of my grails; how I wish it would get a complete release to give it a more rounded, nuanced feel than what's currently on the album.
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And whatever happened to Edward Shearmur?? He was a rising star in the early 2000's. I would love to hear his music return to scoring the bigger movie releases. His 2002 score to The Count of Monte Cristo is another favorite of mine. The same thing that happened to Cliff Eidelman, I presume. You can't really compare Shearmur to Eidelman. Eidelman hasn't scored a film since 2012. Shearmur has a new Kevin Spacey film coming up soon, called Elvis & Nixon. He also scored K-Pax director Iain Softley's 2015 film Curve, and in 2014 he scored the Nicole Kidman film Before I Go To Sleep and Peter Bogdanovich's She's Funny That Way.
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bump
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