DVD Review - X-Files I Want to Believe
Mulder and Scully Return in Disappointing Mystery
Aug 18, 2009
Ten years after the first X-Files movie, and six years after the end of The X-Files on television, I Want to Believe reunites Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson). Both have left the FBI. Scully has returned to medicine, while Mulder has become a cranky recluse. They are reluctantly drawn back to the world of supernatural investigation when an FBI agent goes missing, and the only clues are provided by a psychic de-frocked priest. Who else would you call but Mulder and Scully?
The Return of Mulder and Scully
The first appearances of Mulder and Scully in the film are familiar, yet startling. Scully’s hair is long and a bit messy, no longer the bobbed hair of the no-nonsense FBI agent, while Mulder is sporting a beard. Their relationship seems every bit as strong and prickly as it always was, however, with Mulder still willing to believe, and Scully the voice of reason.
The story unfolds against a washed-out, wintry background of heavy snow and chilling cold. Performances, including a restrained Billy Connolly as the fallen priest, are solid. Duchovny brings out Mulder’s obsessive nature, while Anderson’s ability to portray powerful emotion with the smallest of gestures and facial expressions is as impressive as ever.
No doubt an attempt to entice the casual viewer as well as the X Files fanatic, the plot is self-contained, avoiding the convoluted alien conspiracy plotline that formed such a major part of the television show. As the show continued, that plotline became complicated enough to baffle even the most avid fan, let alone anyone not familiar with the ongoing stories of the show’s nine-year run.
I Want to Believe Falls Short
Taken on its own merits, I Want to Believe is a competent detective story. Unfortunately, it has to compete with its groundbreaking television predecessor – at its best, sharp, thought-provoking and adventurous. I Want to Believe is not these things.
I Want to Believe is, ultimately, disappointing. There are flashes of those elements that made the television show such a phenomenon – the dry wit, the spooky atmosphere, the undoubted chemistry between Duchovny and Anderson – but here they are spread too thin. Unlike the religious allusions, which are at times spread far too thick. The subplot concerning Scully’s anguish over a young terminally-ill patient feels tacked on, serving more as an excuse to pile on the angst rather than advancing the plot.
Given that the X Files’ main strength was the partnership of its main characters, the decision to have Mulder and Scully apart for much of the movie feels like a mistake.
DVD Extras on I Want to Believe
The Director’s Cut DVD of I Want to Believe includes a commentary on the film by director Chris Carter and co-writer Frank Spotnitz, and a selection of deleted scenes.
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