Metascore
49 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 31 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 31
  2. Negative: 6 out of 31
  1. 75
    The heart of the movie is in the Spacey performance, and in knowing that less is more, he plays Prot absolutely matter-of-factly.
  2. 50
    The biggest load of New Agey hogwash to grace the big screen since Spacey's "Pay it Forward."
  3. In short, this movie is exactly the kind of starry-eyed escapist fantasy that Dr. Powell suspects Prot of having. It's harmless enough, since we can be cured just by leaving the theater.
  4. I rather like the whole mystic- crystal-revelations aspect of K-PAX, and the idea that even a psychiatrist of Jeff Bridges' handsome, American substantiality is open to notions of cosmic improbability.
  5. A pleasant enough entertainment raised above its station by the quality of its acting.
  6. When Kevin Spacey takes center stage, our planet really does seem bright.
  7. Entertaining for so long it's a downer to sit through the dumbed-down finale.
  8. 40
    While nowhere near as mawkish at the abysmal "Pay It Forward," K-PAX nevertheless seems somehow unfocused and meandering; it's Spacey-light.
  9. Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    50
    As impressive as Kevin Spacey ordinarily is, this isn't the best vehicle for his considerable talents.
  10. Both actors are so good that one might easily overlook the Pollyannaish subplot.
  11. 50
    It's all very "Cuckoo's Nest," but in a glib, facile way, and it leaves K-PAX adrift in its fuzzy, New-Agey orbit.
  12. Both consoling and confounding.
  13. The images are lustrous, the cutting is brisk and the acting of the two leads is right on the money.
  14. The movie itself is not completely successful, but it's consistently both engrossing and entertaining, and -- once again -- Spacey's performance creates a spell that lingers long after the lights come back on.
  15. 50
    The casting in K-PAX is canny, but the picture as a whole is a clunky mix of the canny and the would-be uncanny.
  16. Not worth the rocket fuel.
  17. It's hard to watch these two actors plow through the nonsense of K- Pax without feeling that a terrific opportunity has been squandered.
  18. Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    63
    It would be gratifying to report that there's a lot more to K-Pax than Spacey at the top of his form, but there isn't.
  19. Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    30
    Much of K-Pax consists of Spacey grinning like Stevie Wonder behind sunglasses, -- taking dippy steps, and bobbing his head as if attached to an invisible Walkman.
  20. 70
    Primarily, it's a warm, fuzzy and funny duet between Spacey and Bridges, one that brings to mind the interplay between Spock and Kirk.
  21. Reviewed by: Robert Koehler
    50
    Frustratingly fritters away what fascination it develops and bows to the basic conventions of a standard detective story mixed with the theme of a physician healing himself.
  22. Spacey is turning into another Robin Williams: Between this film and "Pay It Forward" he cops the prize for the Sappiest Performances by an Actor Previously Known to Have Great Talent.
  23. This is a tour-de-force performance, delivered by an actor at the top of his game, and it's a shame that K-Pax, instead of engaging our imaginations as it promises to, devolves into such a conventional, paint-by- numbers disappointment.
  24. 80
    What keeps the movie going, besides Softley's intelligent direction and Mathieson's inventive cinematography, is the actors' duet between Spacey and Bridges.
  25. 40
    K-PAX undertakes a garbled but comprehensive survey of Hollywood therapeutic clichés: The rain man has an awakening from his cocoon, pays it forward, turns into the fisher king.
  26. 30
    Manipulative, feel-good drivel wrapped around a cloying performance by Kevin Spacey.
  27. Isn't quite as offensive as it sounds, nor is it in any way rousing; Spacey and Bridges are watchable, but nothing more.
  28. 40
    A two-time Oscar winner playing a crazy person in a big studio film released in late October. Can't you just smell the pretension? Probably not, given the other ways in which this film stinks.
  29. Reviewed by: Frank Lovece
    30
    The latest offender in the odd "let's see what the cute and funny mentally ill can teach us" genre, this mystery/domestic drama commits all the usual sins and clichés.
  30. Reviewed by: Cody Clark
    60
    Spacey and Bridges -- generally provide exactly the level of investment required for their characters to be convincing. Neither one showboats, and both make good use of the dry humor in Leavitt's script.
User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 58 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 31
  2. Negative: 2 out of 31
  1. some of the lines spoken in this movie have such a deep core, mediocore magazines shown on this website just cant understand it is a breathtaking and expanding movie to sit through, simply wonderful! theres nothing left but a 10 Full Review »
  2. It's not a masterpiece, but its lighted subtle criticism over our nowadays frantic society based on consumption and production, giving pause and importance to humanitarianism by rolling the family as the Aristotelian representation of The nuclear cell of A social structure, makes worth the time spent watching it. If, the art of films represents the inner reflection of a positive potential changing of our own lives and attitude towards it: to live in community highlighting the paradigm person versus object. If not, just a neo-formula of spicing movies with philosophical powder as the new wave of profiting from the ideological needs of the audience like pills to evade from the modern urban depression reflecting a society hunger of rational values. Full Review »
  3. I watched this whole movie, right up to the end. I was pretty sure I knew what it would be but it just dragged on so long I had to change the channel. Who cared at that point. Full Review »