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I’m an old-school fan of The X Files, but the loyalty is tempered: for maybe four seasons, TXF was a sublimely creepy series about wayward FBI agent Fox “Spooky” Mulder (David Duchovny) and his no-nonsense partner Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who came face-to-face with the supernatural and the extraterrestrial on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, the show began to run aground in the fifth season, and ultimately far outstayed its welcome.

The series can be roughly split into two categories: stand-alone “monster” episodes, in which M&S encounter some scary whatsit or another, and the ongoing “mythology” episodes, in which a broad conspiracy having to do with a decades-long extraterrestrial infiltration (and Mulder’s abducted sister) unfolded very, very slowly. While the alien conspiracy stuff was intriguing at first, it soon became obvious that these threads were going to be stretched to their breaking point, giving few or no answers to the truckload of questions they asked. Eventually these types of episodes just began to run around in circles, accomplishing nothing in terms of the overall story arc. In this way, The X Files was the progenitor for the recent vogue of no-answers television, exemplified by Lost, Heroes, and others. At that point in The X Files, the only thing left to savor was the individual monster stories, many of which managed to stay potent, even as the mythology material began to sour.

It’s been a decade since the first X Files feature film (called Fight the Future in all the press materials, even though that title was never used onscreen), which was little more than connective tissue between the fifth and sixth seasons of the series, at which point the show was seriously floundering. It was basically just a slightly more expensive episode of the series (with saltier language), mired in the continuity of the time, and giving no tangible resolutions, even while it answered a few odd questions. Duchovny and Anderson were in fine form, but being basically just another “mythology” episode, it was profoundly unsatisfying to long-time fans, and certainly to the uninitiated. The series limped along for another four years after that (losing Duchovny for the last two seasons, a killing blow that lost the show any minor interest value it might still have retained, despite Anderson’s best efforts), finally ending with a profoundly dopey and confused finale, which left Mulder and Scully anticipating a “scheduled” alien invasion in 2012.

Given the ignoble finish and the general doldrums of the last few seasons, fans of the show had little hope that the franchise would ever be resurrected. And yet, along comes The X Files: I Want to Believe, a melancholy little dirge that is neither “monster” nor “mythology” and is bound to confuse both casual moviegoers and hard-core X-Philes.

Several years after the events of the series finale, Fox Mulder (Duchovny) lives in semi-isolation, clipping newspaper articles about cases he would have investigated were he still with the FBI, and growing a Grizzly Adams beard, while Dana Scully (Anderson) is now a surgeon at a small Catholic-based hospital. Scully is contacted by the Bureau, who want to consult with Mulder on a case involving a missing FBI agent. The agent in charge of the case, Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet), is utilizing the services of a defrocked priest, Father Joseph Crissman (Billy Connolly), a convicted pedophile who nevertheless has “visions” that have led to evidence – which is to say, severed body parts. But Whitney doesn’t trust Father Joe’s veracity, and wants Mulder’s advice. As the case grows ever grislier, Mulder finds himself revitalized by being back on the job, while Scully – who is repulsed by Father Joe, and also focused on a terminally ill patient that she refuses to give up on – withdraws even further, not wanting such darkness to inform her life again after all these years away from the FBI.

The oddest thing about I Want to Believe is its intense concentration on the character dynamics – especially between Mulder and Scully, who have become more than friends but something less than a couple – at the expense of the “mystery” plot, which is so underdeveloped and pedestrian as to be completely negligible. The only remotely supernatural elements here are Father Joe’s supposed second sight (something the original series did several times – the movie even name-checks a few of them – which feels a bit warmed-over here), and the ghoulish nature of What’s Actually Going On (bascially a variation on an old urban legend), but those expecting the speculative grandeur or goosebump-inducing terror that the series achieved on a fairly regular basis will be sorely disappointed. Mulder and Scully are intriguing characters to be certain (through a combination of good writing and superlative acting, they were among the most three-dimensional TV leads in prime time during the mid-‘90s), and the investment in examining this later period in their lives is admirable, but the movie is still entwined with it’s “scary” aspects which, unfortunately, are dull, unimaginative, and have virtually no impact; you keep waiting for some “bigger” development, which never comes. Mulder and Scully have grown into different, but equally fascinating people, and their lives are worth exploring, but these revelations need to have been incorporated into an equally compelling plotline. This is, ultimately not the case, and the movie is left to coast almost entirely on these characters. It engenders interest, to an extent, but can’t help but feel a little half-baked.

At least series creator Chris Carter (co-writing and directing here) was wise enough not to produce a wank-fest on par with the first feature, and in fact I Want to Believe is so bereft of traditional X Files elements – there’s no sign of the Smoking Man (killed in the TV series, but that never kept a good character down), the Lone Gunmen, or bug-eyed aliens of any type – that any casual viewer will be able to engage with the story. The script, written by Carter with TXF alum Frank Spotnitz, is intelligent, but occasionally overwrought, with rather uninspired dialogue. Carter’s direction is likewise a bit workmanlike, with an unsurprisingly concentration on the actors. He makes good use of the snow-encrusted vistas of Vancouver however (it’s always a bit odd to watch a film that takes place entirely in winter when it’s 102 degrees outside), and manages an elegant image or two. But the film’s languid pace will probably work against it in this summer of adrenaline-pumped comic book movies, and there are definitely times when you wish some CGI monster would pop out of the woodwork and rip somebody to pieces. I Want to Believe seems deliberately calculated as a mood piece rather than a popcorn thriller, and while I applaud the intent, the end result is often like watching paint dry. Which is not something I ever thought I’d say about an X Files film.

Still, the cast is a dream, particularly Gillian Anderson, who has always been an actress with skills far in advance of what this part requires. She manages to make Scully even more fully-rounded and sympathetic than before; you can see the pain in her eyes, read the heartbreak in her features, and feel her need to make a positive difference in a world where all forces seem against her. (It also has to be said that Anderson is aging with rare grace; if possible, she is even more luminous and lovely than in the prime days of the series). Duchovny is more in “classic Mulder” mode than Anderson, but is no less impressive for it, and manages to inject some much-needed humor into the dour proceedings. Amanda Peet, known mostly for hot-babe roles, is completely convincing as a disheveled FBI agent, and Billy Connolly gives a wonderfully shaded performance as the ruined priest. Among the major cast, only rapper Xzibit seems a bit one-note as Whitney’s cranky colleague.

Ultimately, despite it’s good intentions, The X Files: I Want to Believe is a profound disappointment. It broods when it should be snarling, and lacks any of the terror or sense of wonder that made the original show so compelling. This feels less like a franchise re-launch than a minor-key coda to conclude the series with some measure of closure that was missing from the actual TV finale. Mulder and Scully are some of my favorite fictional characters, but a more carefully-crafted jolt of the old horror would have been most welcome amid the soul-searching. 

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