Whitney Hendricks: K-Pax

When I first saw the previews for the film K-Pax I thought it looked rather boring and poorly made, after watching it in class last week I changed my opinion. I realized at the end that I didn't want it to be over just yet, my question of weather or not Prot was actually an alien from K-Pax or if he was just a “touched” person was not fully answered. I made the parallel between Prot and an angel because of the impact that he had on everyone at the hospital, including the doctors. It almost seemed like Prot was sent to the hospital (or earth) to give hope to the patients and help them cure themselves. K-Pax can be viewed as some sort of spiritual or heavenly place. It was a place that everyone wished they could go to, somewhere they could be happy and carefree. The connection came clear when one of the Patients asked Prot, “Are you really from up there”? It almost seemed as if it was just Prot's spirit in the body of this man, and the spirit left when he completed what he came to do, place hope and faith into the people who needed it. He did this when he chose Bess to come with him to K-Pax, she was in fact gone when he had told everyone they (not Bess in particular, but him and who he chose to come) were leaving and she was gone. The interesting thing about this film is how open for interpretation it is, I viewed it this way but there can be many other ways in which the meaning can be seen.