CRIME DRAMA; 1hr 44min
STARRING: Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny
The X factor: Duchovny and Anderson
From those first few eerie, needling notes, we’re back in the land of the faithful (or not…). The X-Files: I Want to Believe picks up six years after the TV series’ 2002 finale, in the glacial West Virginian winter of 2008. Fox Mulder (Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), no longer with the FBI but still meshing emotion with wits, are aiding a Bureau search for a missing agent. Amanda Peet, Xzibit and Billy Connolly are along for the ride. And given that this wiggy project has been shrouded in more secrecy than a classified case, that’s it from me, story-wise.
Believe is directed by series creator Chris Carter, who co-wrote the screenplay with his offsider, Frank Spotnitz. These guys are past masters at piling on the intrigue and as the plot thickens and twists, so does Mulder and Scully’s fervent investment in it. (This time out, the cerebral twosome’s edgy angst is practically another character.) The movie per se is gloomily freaky. But it’s a fine thing to watch its two stars act up.
