Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey (The Usual Suspects, American Beauty) and Academy Award nominee Jeff Bridges (The Big Lebowski, The Contender) bring to their new film K-PAX both intrigue and perseverance in a light-hearted way that perhaps only these two could have accomplished. K-PAX will by no means win many if any Oscars this February, but its story still has much to offer. K-PAX revolves around the life of Dr. Mark Powell (Jeff Bridges), a psychiatrist at a mental hospital in Manhattan. Dr. Powell’s life consists of a nice job, a beautiful wife (Mary McCormick), and three children, one of whom he had with a previous wife and with whom he has not spoken to for years because, as Powell says, “we have a difference of opinion sometimes.” Yet besides the fact that he and his older son do not speak, you can tell that something is missing from the man, as evidenced by the way he interacts with both his patients and his wife.

Then out of the blue, enters Prot (sounds like prote), played by the spectacular Kevin Spacey, who starts to change the lives of Dr. Powell’s patients for the better. Dr. Powell is amazed by Prot, not just because of his dynamic belief that he is an alien from the planet K-PAX, but because of his superior knowledge of astronomy and mathematics. As the story progresses, Powell becomes too close to Prot and becomes obsessed in trying to save him. However, as the story progresses, one asks is Prot really from K-PAX?

Though the story is compelling with its humor and drama, the ending is very touching, the two main characters having evolved from the beginning. The evolution for the two comes directly from their own relationship with one another. In a sense, they both find what they are looking for, in more ways than one.

The film works because it is not over dramatic and because director Softley has both Spacey and Bridges work with and demonstrate effectively the change their characters undergo. K-PAX in later months, I believe, will be a great DVD to own for its fans. The cinematography is excellent in the film, and the pitch-perfect clearness the DVD has to offer will give it the credit it deserves. The film also has within it some great shots of New York, for those that love the city.

I don’t believe that K-PAX will become a great classic like ET or Close Encounters of the Third Kind was. However, until there is another little alien like ET, Kevin Spacey will have to do.