The movie, like the series, employs titles registering places, hours and minutes in old-fashioned military typescript, but here they're unintentionally funny. The staging and editing are so chaotic that knowing the locale and time of day is no help at all.
Some series trademarks and devices retain their zing. Carter milks offbeat locations and types for eeriness and humor, such as a snow-shrouded rural natatorium (or swimming facility) and its slow-talking old proprietor who keeps a register of users every day - and throws it out every day, too.
And the casting couldn't be better, including Amanda Peet as an FBI agent who may have her eye on Mulder in more ways than one. Peet's avidity perks up Anderson in group scenes. Scully twitches with wary eloquence when she senses another woman may have feelings for her partner.
Too bad Carter jeopardizes or kills off characters with uncharacteristic recklessness. As a result, this movie is heavy in mood and flimsy in emotion. The director has made a point of not disclosing whether Mulder and Scully get romantic, so I won't spoil the fans' fun. Let's just say that in better times, their spiritual kinship was hotter than most screen couples' erotic writhing.
In a 2002 New York Times piece headlined "The X-Files Finds the Truth: Its Time is Past," critic Millman noted the approach of a new millennium as the reason The X-Files successfully exploited conspiracy theories and spiritual phenomena despite the relative peace and security of the Clinton years. I think it was precisely the prosperity and security of the Clinton years that enabled viewers to savor entertainment that could rock their world views.
The funniest moment in I Want to Believe comes when Mulder and Scully get ready to enter an FBI office. They see portraits of J. Edgar Hoover and President Bush on either side of the door, and Carter brings up the otherworldly X-Files theme on the soundtrack. It's as if he's confessing that what Americans have been through for the past seven years is wackier and deadlier than anything he could put into The X-Files: I Want to Believe.
michael.sragow@baltsun.com
Online
See more photos and watch a preview of The X-Files: I Want to Believe at baltimoresun.com/xfiles
Film talk
Director and creator Chris Carter discusses revival of "The X-Files." PG 4C
The X-Files: I Want to Believe
(20th Century Fox) Starring David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly. Directed by Chris Carter. Rated PG-13 for violent and disturbing content and thematic material. Time 100 minutes.
