The Plot
Unlike the previous X-Files movie, I Want to Believe's plot is straightforward -- almost alarmingly so. Several years removed from their exploits in the FBI, Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) are living together (!) in a remote country home, with Scully working full-time as a doctor in a Catholic-run hospital and Mulder working full-time as a creepy bearded recluse. Mulder's work on the Bureau's "X-Files" (cases involving unexplained phenomena) has been discredited, and the government has wanted nothing to do with him for years...until now.
He's called in by Special Agent Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet) to help determine the validity of claims by ex-priest Joseph Crissman (Billy Connolly) that he's suddenly having psychic visions of a kidnapping. This wouldn't normally pique the FBI's interest, but the victim in question is a female agent, Monica Bannan (Xantha Radley). Complicating matters is the fact that Crissman was defrocked for molesting more than 20 boys, making him not only less sympathetic, but also less credible.
Mulder begins to believe in the priest's visions (The bleeding eyes help.), however, and as often happens with couples, Scully is drawn into his case against her will. She falls neatly into her well-established role of conservative Christian skeptic, while Mulder is the semi-reckless believer taking every word from Crissman's mouth as gospel. Working with inept agents Whitney and Drummy (Alving "Xzibit" Joiner), the two ex-X-Filers tie the abduction to a string of disappearances as they unravel the proverbial "truth" that's out there.
The End Product
With its standalone story, I Want to Believe veers away from the show's sci-fi mythology of alien life and government conspiracy and towards a serial killer thriller more akin to The Silence of the Lambs. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, of course, especially if the movie can approach The Silence of the Lambs in quality. Unfortunately, it can't, and it doesn't even come close.
In fact, I Want to Believe wouldn't even necessarily be a top-tier episode of the TV series. If it didn't have the X-Files name attached to it, I can't see this story making it to theaters. It's a small-scale film lacking big-screen thrills, an imagination-starved yarn taking place primarily in just two or three locations, rather than the myriad of exotic settings (and times) that littered the previous film.
What holds your interest in I Want to Believe are the thrill of seeing Anderson and Duchovny reliving their characters and the hope that major plot developments will enliven the cookie-cutter plot. Sadly, the latter never arrives, and the former works only for the show's established fans.
With that in mind, then, the movie ironically seems aimed to draw in new fans, with its stripped-down storyline and its reestablishment of Mulder and Scully's roles as believer and skeptic, respectively. We're basically back to square one with these characters, although really, after nine seasons of aliens, monsters and unexplainable mumbo-jumbo, Scully's dubious nature should've been shot to pieces by now.
On the bright side, those yearning for the classic Mulder-Scully repartee will find I Want to Believe an oasis in the six-year desert since the series went off the air. Anderson is strong as always, and Duchovny is more emotional than I recall him ever being on the show. Both continue their remarkable ability to legitimize the often ridiculous, self-congratulatory lines that Carter and company have made such a lovable part of their world.
It's this writing that's the real downfall of the picture, however. The prattling monologues are expected, but Carter and Spotnitz become so concerned with crafting a story full of "meaning" and introspection on the nature of faith, religion and science -- tossing in such hot-button topics as altar boy molestation, stem cell research and gay marriage -- that the narrative loses its entertainment value. It's dull, pedestrian, self-important and beneath fans' realistic expectations.
Scully's "B" story about her trials working at the hospital is an also-ran that feels as if it were written just to parallel the main plot. The less said about the "C" story -- Mulder and Scully's relationship woes -- the better. Even those fans clamoring for the two of them to get together likely won't appreciate the story skipping over their happy times and landing headlong into a rocky stretch.
Devotees of the series, of course, could enjoy Mulder and Scully doing hand puppetry for two hours, but I can't see I Want to Believe winning over many converts, no matter how accessible they try to make it. It's probably best viewed by fans as an alternate reality to the one we know and love, a one-off in which Scully forgets everything that's happened to her, the government isn't covering anything up and Mulder sleeps on the couch when he's in Scully's doghouse. Even then, it's still worth only a DVD rental.
