Director: Chris Carter
I wanted to believe that "I Want To Believe" would be something special, that it would make me think and leave me wondering, the way the series always did. But the new X Files movie lacks the key X Files ingredients 's the secrets, mystery and unanswered questions that made the show so fascinating.
Former FBI agents Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) are living peaceful civilian lives after leaving the FBI. Scully is a staff physician at a Catholic hospital, while Mulder, as obsessed with the paranormal as ever, has become a bearded hermit, living in a shack and collecting newspaper clippings about unexplained occurrences.
When the FBI begins its search for a kidnapped agent, disgraced priest Joseph Crissman (Billy Connolly) turns to them, claiming he has psychic visions, which lead agent Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet) to a severed arm. Since Whitney has no experience with such things, she asks for Scully's help in finding Mulder, promising the FBI will forgive him. Mulder warily accepts the offer and takes the case. Then another woman is abducted, and Father Joe's visions again prove uncannily accurate.
Scully, meanwhile, has failed to find a treatment for a small boy named Christian (Marco Niccoli) with an untreatable brain disease, and she is battling the hospital system to continue her work and possibly save the boy's life. Finally, her persistence yields a clue pertaining to the kidnapping case that Mulder is working on.
This film focuses more on relationships and psychological dilemmas than fantastical creatures and conspiracies. Scully and Mulder clash over their divergent interests 'sshe seeking to save her chronically ill patient, he refusing to settle into a normal civilian life. Scully also suspects Mulder of trying to use Father Joe to find Samantha Mulder, his long-lost sister, but that potential sub-plot never really develops. Director Chris Carter has said that one of the film's themes is "the difficulties in mediating faith and science," which adds an interesting undercurrent to the conflicts between Mulder and Scully.
But as far as the plot goes, nothing is very mysterious, and the movie feels like just another thriller, lacking the sense of wonder and intrigue that the series had in spades. Father Joe, however, was a very interesting character. A convicted pedophile, he is desperately seeking God's understanding and forgiveness and believes his visions are God's gift. And because his visions prove so strangely accurate, the FBI needs his help but can't rule him out as a suspect.
But I couldn't help wondering what had happened to the old X Files that I knew and loved. Where were the mystery and excitement, the secret experiments and unexplained phenomena? Although Anderson's acting was brilliant (she was better than Duchovny), this film wasn't the X Files as I remembered it.
One potential problem for the casual viewer is that the film assumes its audience has watched the series to the end. I hadn't, and some of the dialogue confused me. It was irritating, because the film made no effort at exposition or refreshing the audience's memory.
Though the film itself lacked the sense of wonder and mystery the series had, its production, according to the Internet Movie Database, was shrouded in secrecy. The producers went to great lengths to keep the details from being leaked to the public, using a fake name for the production company, a code name for the movie ("Done One") and only giving the cast and crew the part of the script that would be shot on that particular day 's then collecting and shredding the scripts when shooting was done.
Though the film didn't leave me with any of the exciting questions that drew me into the series, those who want to see Scully and Mulder on the screen again should certainly go 's the chemistry between the two still exists, despite Anderson's struggles with the role. She told The New York Times that it was harder than she expected to become Scully again, five years after the show ended. "I walked in thinking, 'It's going to be like riding a bicycle,'" she told the Times. "It wasn't. It was like riding a … unicycle." Other reviewers have said that her difficulty playing Scully showed through, but I thought she did a marvelous job.
Now showing in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
