wytchcroft

The X-Files : I Want to Believe

Report no. X.2/1 - Agent Croft Introductory remarks.

I want to believe.

A catch phrase found fading from a million rolled posters that hung from doors and walls throughout the 90s.

Believe in what exactly?

As time has gone on it seems to have become more of a genuine question for both the fans and the makers of the show. First Chris Carter created a dark little off-shoot of The X-Files called Millennium, which involved a psychic discovering that; 1) He probably wasn't psychic after all, and 2) Angels and Devils are real - fighting an apocalyptic battle for the future right now! - only maybe they aren't.
Not a hit show that one.

And yet - here in the long delayed X-Files 2nd film - the situation is not dissimilar.
Billy Connelly plays a 'psychic' (and ex-Priest) who may be the saving of one in a chain of female victims disappearing from around his locale, at the same time as apparently unrelated body parts are starting to show up.

So far so gruesome.

Connolly's involvement brings Mulder and Scully into the case. Is this psychic genuine?
The FBI isn't sure what to do - and matters are complicated by the man's unsavoury history as a paedophile. Are his actions simply a tortured cry for attention - a plea for forgiveness? Mulder and Scully are divided; Scully returning in disgust to the Hospital where she works treating a seemingly incurable young patient, whilst Mulder hooks with a new partner, Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet).

The situations facing the two leads are mirror images however, with both Mulder and Scully forced to go out on a limb; Mulder admitting that he 'wants to believe' Connolly, and Scully desperately trying to convince her superiors (including Priests) to have faith in her as a Doctor and in the radical stem-cell treatment she proposes, which puts her at odds with her faculty and the child's family.

As Mulder discovers that the human remains have actually been surgically removed, drugged with animal tranquiliser and treated for radiation... both separate strands of the story are set to tangle together for the climax.

Even a short summary such as this demonstrates that 'I want to believe' is indeed a meditation on the nature and applicability of Faith and the ethical issues such Faith generates.

Criticism of the film has been harsh - not enough aliens or conspiracies. Yet I am baffled by this. As a series, The X-Files was often want to explore non extra-terrestrial matters and indeed even matters of Faith (for anyone who remembers the episode of the 'possessed' boy).
It was never afraid to tackle complicated human interest stories. Surely, demanding an alien abduction ('myth-arc') type film is asking for a rehash of the series most hackneyed elements? The first X-Files motion picture, 1998s Fight The Future, brought the Extra-terestrial elements of the show to the forefront and very successfully. Too successfully, because attempting to follow up the film's large scale revelations contributed directly to the sinking of the show.
As for conspiracies, the film is full of them. Power and control are in murky hands, medical expertise is misused, and characters share complicity in each others actions and the results thereof. And there is the biggest conspiracy - the conspiracy of silence.

File number X.2/2: Agent Croft - analysis of picture

Silence. A great portion of this X-Files film concerns silence. It is the words that hang unspoken between Mulder and Scully, between them and Connolly. It is the silence hanging over the workers at the hospital with Scully, not daring to speak out even if it might save a boys life. It is in the silence of the victims gradually revealed. It is the silence of the snowy wastes in which the film is set...
... and it is the silence of apparently unanswered prayers.

Faith. Chris Carter had faith in an enormous fan base whose presence across the world can be discovered by a click of a mouse. These fans have 'believed' in the show through five years of its absence - creating forums and net-works and a mountain of fan fiction concentrating almost uniformly on one element of the show.

Keeping the Faith? X-Files fan poster
produced during the wait...

Aliens? No; the relationship between the photogenic characters. The 'will they - won't they?', 'can they -can't they?' spark that helped break the show in the first place... and which ignores the simple fact that before the show closed such questions were answered; Yes, they did already - they live together and have a son already. In fact these crucial elements seemed to have slipped the minds of audience members I saw the film alongside. And when I say audience, I mean badge wearing 'fans', not the casual film-goer - this reveals a problem for any television off-shoot;

First, all films have to aim for a fresh audience who have never seen the original series. Secondly, there is the average fan - the 'bulk' fan who represents the majority. In the specific case of The X-files this means everyone who gave up on the show after Mulder left in season 7.
Finally there the die hards - those who have watched and re-watched the show since birth till now. These fans know the show inside out, certainly better than the members of the crew and cast. Most actors don't like to watch themselves on screen and most production staff are too busy with current projects in a realm where the credo is move forwards - next project!

All shows have these audience divisions to some extent and it must be nearly impossible for one story on screen to unite them all.

Both the vocal complaints of the fans (and the sour notices of the critics) prove unfortunately that Carter's own faith was misplaced. Perhaps, in a post Dan Brown universe - what was wanted was an X-File Da Vinci Code, who can say. The 'truth' is that without a show to view fans tend to take ownership of a product. When the product is actually re-launched, time after time it has been shown that the same loyal fans will actually feel cheated and dissatisfied.

tag line: To Find The Truth - You Must Believe

File no.X.2/3: Agent Croft reporting - Witness testimony

Gillian Anderson is, as ever, excellent - her roles in The House of Mirth and Bleak House having shown her to be far more than a one-trick pony.
All the films most powerful scenes involve Anderson at full emotional stretch. Whether attempting to banter with her young and terminal patient, arguing passionately in front of the hospital directors (much the same as their FBI/CIA counterparts in the series), screwing up her courage before the posssibly fatal surgery she must perform, or simply confronting Connolly's Priest and her own instinctive reactions to him.

Duchovny is also fine - he has a more thankless role this time around, having virtually carried the last X-Film (and since which his career has been a train wreck), but he manages to re-inhabit Mulder's skin easily enough. And Mulder must be a difficult personality to play, balancing the irritating charm and 'I told you so' smugness alongside the deep damage and whacked zealousness at his core.
The rest of the cast are uniformly good, Connolly having long ago 'come out' as a serious thesp'. And notice should be taken of Skinner, looking remarkably well preserved and stepping into character without a blink to deliver a powerful cameo.

There is a much touted goof concerning the mobile phone Mulder uses to reach Scully.
This is false, mass hypnosis and a trick of the light.

The film has been called a weak version of CSI, forgetful of which came first. But not only that, the procedural elements of the film are not much different to a regular X-File case and bare little resemblance to the forensic show.

The story is not that original. True. But the story is a McGuffin in the Hitchcockian sense.
I found the film pretty tense - some have found it dull. All things under heaven are subjective and I have to admit that I am, quite frankly, terrified by any appearance of Callum Keith Rennie (aka Galactica's Leoben).
But to some extent I understand the view - IF the film leads the viewer to expect something like Silence of the Lambs or Zodiac than there is bound to be disappointment when these expectations prove unfounded.

It is not a flawless film - there is at least one execrable edit that cuts off valuable information from the audience. Some of the side characters are undeveloped whilst the two leads are separated for long periods weakening the film and leaving the audience missing their (still vital) chemistry.

Another possible bad call is that although the eventual revelations lead straight to the pages of the Weekly World News, from which so much of the original show was culled, they also seem somewhat dubious in their stereotyping, if not as overtly racist as the gangsters, corporate villains and, well, servants in the pseudo-sophisticated Dark Knight.

The appearance of Skinner has been derided as unrealistic. I don't agree, Skinner having put himself on the line in cases past - and this time around his position and responsibilities are unknown. His appearance in the film is for a reason - his moments with Mulder are part of an important character progression for both. The film itself is a riff, an exploration - the realistic anchors of time and location fade soon after the opening, in favour of a dream like structure which emphasises the idea of the film as a philosophical exploration and as a ruminative coda to the show, rather than a recreation of the show itself.

A cynic might lambast the show as a Walmart Winter Light - and The Name of the Rose it aint, but nowhere else right now will you find a populist film that attempts to seriously reflect on Faith, medical ethics, justice and human relationships and still has a couple of jokes in it too. Recommended.