The X-Files
I Want To Believe

Seeing any movie after watching The Dark Knight is like dating another woman after you break up with Angelina Jolie. The next one might be very nice and personable, but, no matter how hard she tries, she isn’t the one who will make you forget those pouty lips and sexy eyes. Unless, you start dating Carrie Underwood. I guess you can say this movie is more like Kathy Griffin (funny and pretty with the right light, makeup and hair, but not Carrie Underwood-level pretty).

David Duchovny is back as Fox Mulder – our favorite FBI agent specializing in the weird stuff that we find fascinating. Since the TV show ended, he has been a wanted man convicted of murder and declared one of the FBI’s most wanted, so he has been on the run and in hiding, all the while watching how no one seems to care any more about the mysteries he dedicated his life to uncovering. Now, the FBI needs him.

Agents Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet) and Mosley Drummy (Xzibit) have been assigned to find a missing fellow FBI agent in West Virginia, and Whitney is convinced Mulder can be of help. A mysterious, defrocked, pedophile priest, Father Joseph Crissman (Billy Connolly), claims God is sending him psychic visions to help with the investigation, and Whitney wants Mulder to help determine if the unholy holy man is the real deal. To find the untraceable Fox, they decide to reach out to his former partner, Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson).

Will Mulder and Scully be able to find the missing agent?

Is Father Crissman a psychic?

An agent of God?

Does he know more than he is letting on?

The X-Files: I Want To Believe succeeds when it isn’t trying so hard to be The X-Files. Writer Frank Spotnitz and writer/director Chris Carter wisely craft the movie to be a stand alone adventure that provides enough updates on what our favorite characters have been doing over the last few years to keep the hard core fans happy, while not demanding that the audience be steeped in X-Files lore to understand the plot. Sadly, Carter and Spotnitz revisit some themes a bit too often.

While Scully’s constant examination of her faith and the challenges to her beliefs she feels with everything that is happening around her was a big deal in the TV show, it grows tired in The X-Files: I Want To Believe. This yawn inducing plotline, along with her new job, have a very limited and almost forced impact on the bigger story, and should have been dismissed as quickly as yet another reminder that Mulder’s sister disappeared years ago. Again, this might be important to understanding the characters, but hard core fans know this stuff, and non-fans won’t see the big deal and how it relates to finding the missing FBI agent.

However, even with my whining and moaning about those sub-plots, The X-Files: I Want To Believe is good enough to keep your interest as a crime drama. Connolly is fantastic as the conflicted priest seeking redemption, and, thanks to some helpful writing, makes you wonder throughout the movie if his “gift” is a con. Duchovny and Anderson find their rhythm quickly and still have a fun chemistry together, especially when Spotnitz and Carter give them some kooky dialogue along the way. Most importantly, the audience can get wrapped up in the twists and turns of the investigation, even if it isn’t the most complicated or mysterious.

Considering the lack of hype and buzz, The X-Files return is not quite the same as a return by Star Trek (May 8, 2009!!!) or Star Wars (Star Wars: The Clone Wars August 15, 2008!!!!), but it has enough to entertain fans and non-fans alike.

The X-Files: I Want To Believe is rated PG-13 for violent and disturbing content and thematic material.