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on 2008/7/26 5:28:15
The second "X-Files" movie's agenda is right there in its subtitle: "I Want to Believe." Still, the nature of this top-secret project should come as a surprise to most everyone.
A dark, wintry meditation on faith and forgiveness, the new film all but ignores the alien incursions and government conspiracy plot lines that fueled the TV series from 1993 to 2002. This one, written by "Files" creator Chris Carter (who also makes his feature directing debut) and longtime co-producer Frank Spotnitz, is as much a brainy domestic drama as it is a stand-alone, just-slightly sci-fi thriller.
It takes some daring risks involving sexuality, religion and medicine, which sometimes prove more shocking than the film's scarier material. Despite the occasional bits of humor — there's a priceless George W. Bush gag — it takes that title wish, formerly just a tag line on a poster in Fox Mulder's D.C. office, too seriously at times for the story's good.
A hushed, reflective tone dominates after an FBI agent is jarringly abducted from her snowbound West Virginia home. The task force in charge of finding her approaches Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), now a pediatric surgeon at a Catholic hospital, to get in contact with her old partner Mulder (David Duchovny).
There's a supernatural wrinkle in the investigation: Seems a pedophile ex-priest, Joseph Crissman (Billy Connolly), has extrasensory visions relating to the case that aren't quite enough to solve it. The Bureau could now use Mulder's expertise, even though they booted him out six years ago for general weirdness and evidently put a warrant or something on his head.
Why the feds don't know enough to go to the home Mulder has been sharing with Scully all this time remains one of the plot's mysteries. Why the couple still refer to one another by last names after so many years together is, too.
The assignment revives Mulder's passion for pursuing the unknown. Scully, repulsed by Father Joe's past, gets even more flustered over his psychic gifts, since they also seem to address a controversial procedure she wants to get past the priests at work. This all leads to more strain than ever on the franchise's central relationship.
Oh, and more women get kidnapped. Then there's a two-headed dog "...
As smart and obsessed as ever, Mulder and Scully generate a lot of good will that helps "I Want to Believe" plow its way out of numerous narrative snowbanks. Primarily concerned with the slippery nature of faith in various contexts, the plot loses traction. Fortunately, we care more about Mulder and Scully's souls than the rather preposterous mystery's outcome.
Such a rich, intelligent pop-culture creation as "The X-Files" has earned enough grace to mainly riff on what its troubled heroes are all about. Just go into "Believe" aware that, rather than the other series tagline "The Truth Is Out There," this movie is more concerned with finding truths that dwell within.
