THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE
US, 2008, 104 minutes, Colour.
David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly, Alvin ‘Xzibit’ Joyner, Callum Keith Rennie, Adam Godley.
Directed by Chris Carter.
This is a ‘stand-alone’ film deriving from the extremely popular TV series which ran for nine years were simply a reasonably entertaining murder thriller with psychic overtones.
Needless to say (but still saying it), fans of the series will want to see this story no matter what. Whether they will be happy that, while Mulder and Scully (David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson) are centre-screen, this is not a film about FBI or government paranoia and mysterious aliens. It is a here-on-earth investigation of disappearances and a grim conspiracy that has to do with medical practice and malpractice.
Scully is now a doctor at a Catholic hospital and concerned about a young boy with a rare and deteriorating brain disease and whether he should be permitted to die or to undergo a number of radical and untested surgical procedures. Mulder, by contrast, is living, more or less, as a hermit. Scully is asked to bring him back for an FBI investigation which involves a former priest (Billy Connolly) who claims to have visions about the case. Mulder, with his keen intuitions about intuitions becomes interested. Scully is the rationalist, the sceptic. The FBI (Amanda Peet and Alvin ‘Xzibit’ Joiner) are on the side of the sceptics but keep getting drawn into the search for the missing women.
The surgery issue (and stem cell research) is intercut with the investigation, making the two issues closely connected in themes, especially about the efforts to prolong life. Mulder pursues the hunches and leads to a final confrontation. Scully has to question her presuppositions and the possibilities that there could be more realities than those that science allows. This centres on the truth or fakery of what psychics say and do. The film takes great interest in what advertising says is ‘supernatural’ (which it is not because that is the area of grace) but which, to be technical, is ‘preternatural’, experiences beyond the normal.
Set in a wintry West Virginia (though filmed in Canadian mountain locations), the film has action and chases but it also has a great deal of discussion about issues.
Scully works at a Catholic hospital where the Board is headed by Fr Ybarra (Adam Godley). The film makes him a very serious character and, from Scully’s point of view, quite unsympathetic, especially in discussing the decision about whether to go ahead with the boy’s surgery. This is dramatised in Scully’s discussions with Fr Ybarra, with the boy’s parents and their decision not to go ahead with the operations as well as in her impassioned speeches at the Board meeting where the hospital management support the decision against the surgery.
The screenplay introduces stem cell research since the surgery requires results from such research. In fact, the screenplay does not speak about stem cells from embryos or adult stem cells. And, in further fact, when the malpractice at the centre of the mystery and experimentation with dogs and with humans is exposed, the audience’s emotional response is against what is, as expected, characterised as the work of a ‘modern Dr Frankenstein’.
It can be added that nuns appear in the hospital but the producers have not checked out what contemporary nuns in hospitals actually do, whether they walk in solemn pairs down corridors or what they wear in terms of habits modified from older days – this presentation of nuns is over thirty years out of date.
Writer-director Chris Carter, who created the original series, says that his story ‘involves the difficulties in mediating faith and science’. This involves talk about belief in God or non-belief, Scully ‘cursing God’ for allowing children to be born with fatal diseases. Mulder, somewhat off-handedly but seriously, asks her whether she thinks God is unable to sleep because of this. Mulder is open to faith beyond the senses, at least. The title of the film, taken from a poster used in the series and shown here in his room, states in capital letters, ‘I WANT TO BELIEVE’.
Billy Connolly plays a former priest, Fr Joe, a convicted paedophile, with quite some restraint instead of his sometime over-the-top style, is a convicted paedophile priest, guilty of penetration of 37 of his altar boys.
Derogatory remarks are made about Fr Joe. Scully is particularly antagonistic and judgmental and Mulder makes a few of his offhand sardonic remarks about the priest. But the screenplay is actually leading its audiences into some more serious reflection on these issues and the consequences.
Fr Joe has been suspended from his priestly functions and lives in an institution for offenders. He experiences psychic ‘visions’, stating that he did not ask for them but that God had given them to him. It seems to be an opportunity for him to make some kind of atonement for what he has done. The question of what attitudes people should take towards offenders is a key one. By the end of the film, with some complications about the identity of the central criminal in terms of being one of Fr Joe’s victims – and some ‘mystical’ connections made between deaths and the saving of lives – this introduction of a paedophile priest is not a mere opportunistic device but something more substantial. It seems that underlying the character of Fr Joe in an X Files story we can find some of these deep issues.
1.The film for fans? The criticism of it being only a thriller without extraterrestrial mysteries? Its success as an FBI thriller?
2.The popularity of the series, mysteries, conspiracies, aliens, the government and the FBI? The 1990s? Into the 21st century, the emphasis on serial killers, psychic information? The title and the poster in Mulder’s room? The repetition of the phrase by the characters?
3.West Virginia and the settings from Canada? Winter, snow and ice, the town, the roads, the lakes? The car crashes? The musical score and the series theme?
4.The introduction: the FBI agent and her driving, the stalker, scratching his arm, her abduction, the imprisonment, her fear? The swimmer, her being stalked, the crash, her abduction, the experiments, her death?
5.Dakota Whitney? As an agent? Agent Drummy and his participation? The attempts to recover the agent? Their relying on research and reason? Sceptical about the psychic priest? Asking Scully to bring Mulder in on the investigation?
6.Scully, as a doctor, her concern about her case, the little boy, his brain illness, the discussions about it, hopes for treatment or not? The issue of surgery, the parents and their consent? Father Ybarra and his stance? The stance of the hospital board? Whitney and her going to Scully to ask her to visit Mulder? Her visit, the interactions with Mulder, offering him the possibility to come back, to reconcile with the FBI, his decision? Her raising issues of the past? Her relationship with Mulder, the son? The continued tensions between them in terms of faith and science?
7.Mulder in his retirement, the retreat, blaming the FBI, his resentment, cutting out the pages, his interest in the case, resistance, finally agreeing?
8.The case, the searchers on the ice, the squad searching for evidence, for bodies? Father Joe and his leading the search, the finding of the arm? The attitude towards psychics? Faking or not?
9.Father Joe as a person, Billy Connolly’s performance, his appearance, wild hair? As a priest, as an abuser, the conviction? His living in the institution, his life? His room, the crucifix, his kneeler and prayer, the Bible, quoting Scripture? The visions coming to him, his not wanting them, seeing them as God-given? The mystery of what he was seeing, his asserting that the girl was alive? The searchers, going on the lake, leading to the house? The FBI tricking him? Scully condemning him as a person and as a priest? Mulder and his sardonic remarks? Whitney and Drummy and their dislike of him? Continuing the search, the finding of bodies, his weeping tears of blood? Scully and the scientific explanations, Mulder and his continuing with the hunches, even when he was inclined to give up? Further discoveries, reassurance? Father Joe telling Scully never to give up, her visit to him, her wanting him to explain whether this was psychic knowledge or not, his disclaimer? His talking about himself, the former priests hating each other and themselves, for their baser drives and their behaviour? His continued assertion that the agent was alive? Scully and Mulder and their disbelief, yet the final clues, the criminal being one of his altar boys, the connection? His collapse, going to the hospital, looking at the photo? His death – and its coinciding with the freedom for life for the agent?
10.The topical aspect of the paedophile priest? Audience sharing Scully’s disgust? The issue of consequences after conviction, possibilities of redemption, atonement? The mystical connection and God working through this kind of person?
11.Scully, at the hospital, her research, with the boy, the decisions, her impassioned speech at the board? The stem cell research? Her studies, Googling, the information on the Russians? Spurring her into action after turning her phone off? The issue of continuing surgery for the boy, extraordinary means of prolonging life? The fact that at the end she decided to do the surgery, acting on intuition?
12.Mulder and his pursuit, the toxin, the dogs, going to the pharmacy? The hospital, seeing the courier, following him, the dramatic chase, Whitney’s death? The car, the car accident, Mulder getting out, going to the lab?
13.Scully and her phone calls, the research, her concern, going to the crash site, hearing the dogs, going to the lab? Her care for the agent? Her working with the head from Washington, DC? The rounding up of the criminals?
14.The issue, life and stem cell research, animal research and grafting of organs, the toxins? The two women and their being stalked, the agent and her being imprisoned? The swimmer and her being used for experiments, the failure, her head in the box? The abductions, the imprisonment? The agent in the cell, watching, her food, the crisis and the door left ajar, her getting out, the dogs and her being returned to the cell? The doctors and nurses and their experiments?
15.The criminal, the past altar boy, his lover and the transplanting of the organs, the experiments? His reassurance that the man would recover? Father Joe and the recognition of the photo? The link with him? Saving an agent from one of his victims before he abused her?
16.The case itself, science and life, Mulder and his returning home, the cut-outs?
17.The hospital, the themes about stem cell research, extraordinary means for prolonging life?
18.Themes of faith, reason, intuitions, science, the psychic, criminal investigations? Serial killings, abductions? The putting of the blame on Russians and Eastern Europeans?
19.The final credits, Scully and Mulder in the boat and their waving goodbye?
