I was doing a bit of computer spring cleaning, and came across this list of nits that I apparently emailed to “Sax and Jared” (Brian Webber) back in 2001, asking them to create a board for this movie that they never did. I saw the movie at a screening of on Monday, October 22 at the Universal Screening Room in NYC, after the previous one had been cancelled, because it was on September 11. (Still have the invitation for that one.) The movie is well written, well acted, and well directed.

The name of Kevin Spacey’s character is pronounced "Proat", but it is spelled "Prot" in the credits, in the publicity for the film, at imdb.com, etc. Why?

Why does everyone go crazy when Howie spots the bluejay? The mental patients I can understand, but why are Dr. Powell and Conchatta Ferrell’s character so equally shocked? The only one to act normally is Dr. Viccars (Alfre Woodard).

Prot says in the beginning of the film that he is 337 Earth years old, but he later says under hypnosis that he was 175 in 1985.

Wanting to say goodbye before Prot goes back to K-PAX, Dr. Powell shares a toast of scotch with Prot, and says, “I doubt Freud ever tried this, but…” The writer who wrote this line obviously isn’t familiar with the fact that Freud is universally regarded among psychologists as a quack (at least as a psychoanalyst). Freud’s theories were entirely unscientific, and the psychology community began reevaluating him in the 70s. By the 90s, he was all but dismissed. The November 20, 1993 issue of Time featured a cover story on Freud, with his head depicted on the cover as a crumbling jigsaw puzzle next to the heading "Is Freud Dead?"

After the incident where Prot accosts Dr. Powell’s daughter during a flashback, Dr. Viccars wants to transfer Prot to the fourth floor. He tells Dr. Viccars that Prot is not violent. But he then says he has to help Prot before July 27 because he’s afraid he’ll become violent, to himself or others.

The drug they used on Prot when he first came to the hospital, Hadinol, had no effect, but later, after Prot supposedly returns from Greenland and Iceland, Powell tells him if he doesn’t consent to hypnosis, they’ll put him on the fourth floor, where’ll they’ll stick him with needles that will put a funny grin on his face.

One has to wonder why Prot doesn’t eat meat, given that he was a knocker (someone who holds down cows before their throats are slit) in a slaughterhouse.

Ernie’s “cure” of Howie was quite interesting. I remember seeing a segment of some newsmagazine—20/20, I think—about an autistic woman who suffered from bouts of anxiety. She eventually discovered that when her neck were held with pressure, as in a stock, it calmed her, and she fashioned a comfortable, padded stock for this purpose. She worked in a cow slaughterhouse, and discovered that the same principle could be applied to the cows, which were somewhat hard to control as they lined up for slaughter. The same stock would calm them down. I’ve also noticed that when I hold my cat Elsa in my arms, if her throat rests on my arm, with her head hanging over the edge of the arm, she goes totally limp. Her legs hang down, she doesn’t try to get out of my arms, and it doesn’t harm her, and I’ve wondered if this is the same principle. Perhaps this pressure slows blood flow to the brain in a calming but non-harmful manner. In the movie, Ernie ties a handkerchief around Howie’s neck. Howie, who, if I recall correctly, was an obsessive compulsive, is cured. Robert Porter, worked in a slaughterhouse. Interesting.

When Prot tells Dr. Powell’s kids that their dog is going deaf in their left ear, and one of the two daughters says, "No way." This indicates that Prot knew something he couldn’t have known. Given what is later revealed in the film, how did he know this? Or was the daughter’s reaction nor because she knew this was true and wondered how Prot knew it, but rather that the kids didn’t know the dog was going blind at all, and the daughter simply believed that Prot could speak to the dog, and was shocked at the notion?

In the trailer for the film, and when it happens at the end of the film, we assume that when the camera goes on the fritz right before Prot is supposed to go back to K-PAX, that it’s because it’s being disrupted by the aliens, either deliberately, or because of their technology. In retrospect, we realize that it simply went on the fritz because cameras sometimes do that. The coincidence of the malfunction with Prot’s alleged departure was just that: a coincidence.

Okay, so how does Robert Porter see ultraviolet light? Is this scientifically possible? Dr. Powell talks about "savants", and I can buy that as an explanation for his knowledge about astronomy, but can savants perceive UV light? And what about his blood pressure? Or his immunity to thorazine? Even if we buy the theory that Prot was real, and merely “inhabiting” Robert Porter, as some have suggested, wouldn’t Robert’s body still have the same blood pressure, be subject to thorazine, and have conventional sight?