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K-PAX (2001)
Could have been better
Since I would give Gene Brewer's homonym book this movie was based on a 10/10, I rated the movie as high as successful I think the adaptation was, comparing them as much as I could within the word limit.
Lovely soundtrack, the way they used light and colour to refer to prot's special vision and light travels was beautiful and most of the people looked and acted just like I thought. Kevin Spacey was terrific – three for him out of the six stars, one for the music, one for the cinematography and one for the good scenes – but Bridges with his patronising attitude was so different from the novel's doctor that I didn't mind his name changed. Neither his wife was "wonderfully understanding" as in the book, and seeing the other main female character, Villers even worse made me wonder what kind of experiences the scriptwriter must have had with women.
I think the parts true to the novel were fine due to it being excellent, this review is mainly about the changed ones, so further reading is recommended only to those who have already seen the film.
SPOILERS!
A general problem was the book's very finely tuned ambiguity ruined: in there both theories had equal plausibility, which prevented disappointment over the unanswered ending, unlike it happened in the movie.
The patients' behaviours only made sense knowing the novel (for example, the way Howie's tasks worked). The dog's scene went wrong too: she wasn't fear aggressive as in the book, so it made no sense when the guests got worried about her coming, and when Steve said she never liked "anyone" (strangers, he should have said).
"Let me tell you what your alternative is. A trip to a place where they'll stick a needle in your ass every morning which may or may not leave you with a stupid grin on your face for the rest of your days" says Mark to prot. The novel's psychiatrist never insulted, belittled and threatened him like that but worse is that this is one, but not the only reference to the 1986 Argentinean movie Man Facing Southeast. In it Rantes, a patient of a mental institute believing he is an alien, is finally given anti-psychotic injections. The first one is given in his bottom then his condition starts to deteriorate, stages include a stupid grin on his face. Shame that in comparison to the book it was based on, K-PAX the movie had parts added or altered to make it similar to MFS (for example, the doctor's family setup: two young children, son he refuses to phone, wife he can't get on with) without giving credit so they ended up in a lawsuit with the author of the novel dragged in.
One consolation is that K-PAX is good advertising for it. I only heard about, bought and watched MFS because it was mentioned in these reviews, which is a shame because it's well good (I gave it 9 stars in the review I've just posted about it), as good as the K-PAX novel but better than the movie due to the errors in the latter.
The hypnosis scenes went wrong the most. Erroneous (the risk – abreaction – is not necessarily related to regression, and is worth to take as anyone hypnotises is supposed to know how to deal with it) and it ruins the book's work to dispel myths about hypnosis. For example, to show that a person in trance can look like and act as in waking state, prot is asked at start to open his eyes. Not in the movie.
In the book the doctor informs 56 times about prot's body language and 29 times about of others, sometimes describing the signals as barely perceptive or detective – and in the movie the physician has to warn him to read prot's body language and prot to announce that he wanted a break?!? And apparently the filmmakers tried to save time wrong way: prot skipped six years when he was asked to move two weeks forward. And how could prot be Robert's protector (after all, his name could as well have been derived from this word) if he breaks down remembering the murder (where originally the little girl was raped as well, why to tame it down?).
The camera giving out was ridiculous – what about showing instead the security guy taking eyes off the screen? And when prot was found in his room within seconds it so ruined the ending. In the novel it greatly added to the mystery of his character that they couldn't find him for hours and he could get in the room of Bess, and it was a lot better way to indicate that he had something to do with her disappearance than the patients pointing it out, which even made a reviewer think that she existed only in their imagination.
Some of what I liked:
The parts with only music on, and prot looking around, like when he was at the Powells or in the car. The planetarium – however much different it was I think it's the scene represents the book's atmosphere the best.
The novel never reveals what exactly prot says to people that gains trust in minutes, so I was very impressed to see that the movie, though maybe demystifying him a bit, provided some great examples! At times the movie put just as much effort as the book did into small details, for example, when the website address they looked up Robert's report on or the caption underneath his graduation picture was so clear to see.
The Robert scenes were amazing – I'll never forget the one when he washed his hands at the sprinkler crying
In summary I think the good scenes, even being in minority, are good enough to outweigh the bad, making the movie definitely enjoyable if the messed-up parts are disregarded.
Hombre mirando al sudeste (1986)
Moving and thoughtful
Yes it does.
My first thought was that if they meant to picture a financially struggling institution, they did a perfect job: it looked so real with its dirty, cracked walls, plain furniture and doors in dire need of painting that it brought up my childhood memories about the hospital I've been in in the eighties.
I watched this movie in Spanish with no subtitles, so I don't know the dialogues, but they must be well good if they are half as good as the nonverbal parts, and there were so many great scenes with no words. My favourite one is when Rantes slides the plates in front of that poor hungry family (and you could see the mother really put her children first, they all looked better then herself), and his eye-communication was the icing on the cake.
Or when he walked past the security guard when he slipped out of the institute at night – he timed it so perfectly that he could be confident enough not even to need to rush much, and I liked the music in the scene as well.
I was very impressed with the acting throughout – of course Julio was bored and Rantes was unemotional for a reason. All the more uplifting the moment of Rantes and Beatriz starting to dance to the Ode of Joy was (and another music I like).
The boarding of the patients was outrageous – I can only hope it wasn't based on reality. Judging from their appearance, patients of various severity of disorders seemed to be dumped together, possibly having a bad effect on one another, their clothing was insufficient, they were fed from dogs' bowls, instead of the staff it was Rantes who noticed when they were cold, needed attention or more to eat, and he was all right exactly to the point until his treatment started. The procedure of turning this bright, well-meaning person into a mental and physical wreck was very well pictured and heartbreaking to watch.
One consolation for the similarities between the K-PAX movie (which, unfortunately, had parts added or altered from the book it was based on to make it similar to MFS, but its atmosphere is still different enough – especially regarding the state of the hospital and the way patients were treated – that it is worth watching) and this one is that it's good advertising for it. I only heard about, bought and watched MFS because it was mentioned in the K-PAX reviews, which is a real shame because it's better than the K-PAX movie (I gave it six stars in my review), and as good as the novel.
The scenes with the coffin and the brain are much slagged off as unnecessary but I think they couldn't have been better calculated. Handling of the bodies and the brain only turns rough after we learn Rantes is to get "medication", and so the scenes give us an idea how he would end up – just after he washes the brain down the drain come the injections and wash all the thoughts out of his brain.
But I think the disfigured faces suddenly popping up much earlier, after the scene of Rantes and Julio talking outside walking down stairs were completely unnecessary. The only part I hated – minus 1 star for including this regurgitated, cheap crappy horror-movie scare tactic trick in this great movie.