Our rating: 3 out of 5

Rated: PG13

reviewed by: Charity Bishop

You would be hard-pressed to meet anyone who has not at least heard of the X-Files. I came into the series late in its run but it did not take me long to get hooked on the unique cases and wonderful dynamic of the characters. This recent film is an effort to cash in on the extreme success of the fandom and give the fans a mild sense of closure. Whether or not it succeeds is up to the individual -- some fans claim it is wonderful, and others viewed it with skepticism and sometimes even downright hatred. For my part, I found it an absorbing and heart-pounding adventure into the twisted remnants of humanity.

It has been a number of years since Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) has worked for the FBI in their paranormal unit. Now a successful pediatrician at a charitable hospital, her passion is working with and discovering cures for children, but her most recent patient has proven a challenge. His only hope for survival is a series of risky and painful procedures that most of the medical establishment views with skepticism. One afternoon, an FBI agent corners her in the hall and asks if she happens to know where Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) is, since he has gone into hiding and retreated from public life after a bogus investigation and trial humiliated him into silence. They need his help on a case involving the disappearance of one of their agents. Mulder is reluctant to rejoin the ranks of the elite but is promised that all sins will be forgiven in the process.

At the heart of the case is a former priest, Father Joseph (Billy Connolly) who is tormented by the sins of his past as a convicted pedophile and now is experiencing psychic visions of the crime. Scully is too blinded by her disgust for his former behavior to believe him, but Mulder is intrigued and determined to prove the psychic connection can help solve the crime. Their individual discoveries lead them to a horrific discovery that threatens Mulder's life and tests Scully's faith. It does not sound all that different from one of the television episodes and in some respects it is not, but the franchise has always done well on the big screen, since a larger budget and longer running time allow for more in-depth action scenes. It has been a long time since the actors reprised their roles and Anderson in particular claimed it was difficult to slip back into Scully's shoes, but they did an excellent job.

One of the most interesting things about the series was the integration of faith and the unexplained, also present in this film. Some viewers might be offended by certain aspects of it -- the fact that their psychic lead is a former priest, and Scully confesses to cursing God for His cruelty in allowing a sick child to be born -- but I wasn't. Christianity is not about constant faith and it is certainly not about perfect people. It is those who sin the most who need mercy in the greatest amounts. The priest realizes that his urges are sinful and harmful, and has done everything he can to atone, once breaking down in tears and confessing that all he has ever wanted has been to serve God. Scully ultimately comes to realize that sometimes she just has to take a blind step of faith and wait to see what comes of it. I cannot say, however, that I would recommend this film to just anyone, because it has a lot of dark, disturbing psychological elements.

Without revealing too much of the plot, it's hard to detail what they are, but I will do my best. Inevitably, the agents stumble into an underground Russian organization that sells body parts on the black market, and have figured out how to adapt one appendage to another. Therefore, not only do we see portions of operations in progress, we also stumble across a fair amount of severed limbs -- arms, hands, and even a head that is still conscious of its surroundings (it is about to be attached to another body of a different gender). I'm rather surprised actually that the film did not earn an R-rating, between the references to pedophilia, the dark subject matter, and some of the brutal implications of violence. (A man hacks up a body; we hear the swinging of the axe and the sound of it slicing into flesh.) There are several violent car accidents. A woman scratches up a man's face and hand with a garden tool. An agent falls to her death and is impaled on impact. There are a scattered handful of profanities, including one abuse of Jesus' name, several uses of s*** and the term "pulling it out of your a**". "Buggered" is used in reference to pedophilia. Mulder and Scully live together but are not married. Two of the men involved in the crimes are a homosexual couple. Mulder is attacked by a two-headed dog; later, it is seen lying in blood, one of its heads motionless.