Gosh. Forget that this was a flop, and you simply cannot enjoy it in any way. And forget that you simply cannot watch this desperately lost character without reflecting on the actor.
Instead follow this as another in the Hughes-inspired genre, where the story matters less that the cleanliness of the stereotypes. That's really what this is all about. It innovates not at all in the whiny simpy Jew, and earnest fat kid, and that's too bad because we could well be rid of them. But it does innovate a bit in the bully (who is here not a jock), the love interest (here a bespeckled Asian girl), and of course with the Wilson character.
Its in this experiment that the film relies and fails. There's this oft-used balance between mental unbalance and the fantasy of the ideal. Depp does this well, with perhaps the touchstone being his Brando-inspired Don Juan DeMarco. I may have seen a score of popular movies in the last year that use this. My own central reference is "They Might Be Giants."
But in order for this to work, you have to yearn for the fantasy yourself. You want K-Pax. You want romance, clarity, purity. I suppose it could work for fidelity and family as they try here, but not by the route they chose. I guess they simply banked on Owen being inspired and charming us independently of the character box they put him in. That's what the love interest here is for: to be our surrogate watcher, one who accepts.
Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.
