AT THE MOVIES: ARE YOU A BELIEVER?

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Jul 27, 2008 | by MARK ADAMS

THE STARS: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Billy Connolly, Amanda Peet, Xzibit.

THE STORY: Fox Mulder (Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Anderson), now a couple, are lured back to assist the FBI trying to find a missing agent... but the only person offering clues is a child-abusing psychic ex-priest named Father Joe (Connolly). Against the backdrop of a snowy landscape Mulder and Scully, several years away from their work on the FBI's X-Files, have to decide if they should follow their instincts.

As another woman is abducted the investigation takes them into the sinister territory of perverse surgery and organ harvesting.

THE VERDICT: The X-Files are back and there isn't a little green man in sight. Yep, that's right. No aliens, spacecraft or outer- spacey whatnots of any kind at all. There is barely a conspiracy theory knocking around at all so this is a far more subtle and thoughtful edition of the X-Files. It is far closer to a standard police procedural than fans might expect, but still an intriguing and well sustained movie experience.

We get a psychic former priest (Connolly) - who was a paedophile but then engaged in a bit of self-castration - who has visions of an FBI agent being abducted.

Mulder is sought by the FBI to assist, while a more cynical Scully - now a practising doctor - tags along for the ride. Mulder desperately wants to believe (hence the film's title) and has faith in the priest's visions, while Scully takes the view the priest is simply trying to atone for his sins.

The FBI agents are equally torn - team leader Dakota Whitney (Peet) clearly respects Mulder's views while her number two Mosley Drummy (a steely-eyed Xzibit) dismisses the vision affair as nonsense.

The film may lack aliens and government conspiracies, but where it is at its strongest is dealing with the Mulder and Scully relationship. This time round their romance is all above board - and under the sheets - and at the core of the film is how their firm beliefs both draw them together and drive them apart. Action-wise the film offers relatively slim pickings. X-Files creator Chris Carter directs with a sense of style and atmosphere, but there is little to set the pulse racing.

The climactic scenes are nicely tense but apart from that there is simply a lot of philosophical debate.

Fans of the series will, I'm sure, find much to enjoy - newcomers to the phenomenon might be a bit bemused.

FINAL CUT

A DEFTLY constructed paranormal thriller.

***

Opens Friday, August 1