I Want To Believe The X-Files : Express & Star:

If absence makes the heart grow fonder then we should be ready to fall in love again with FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson).

It’s been six years since the intrepid double-act concluded their groundbreaking investigations into the paranormal in the award-winning TV series, The X-Files, which ended tantalizingly with the characters cuddling up together in a Roswell hotel room.

This second feature film thankfully steps away from the extra-terrestrial plot arc, which dominated the series, creating a stand-alone storyline set in West Virginia and the surrounding wintry wasteland.

Newcomers to this universe of government conspiracies will struggle to make sense of some plot strands, like a reference to Scully’s son William or the reappearance of a familiar face (described as ’some big man from Washington’) for the climactic showdown.

Fans will also appreciate the in-joke of the names in Mulder’s mobile ‘phone address book, visible as he foolishly tries to call Scully while driving one-handed along an icy road.

The story focuses on Father Joseph Crissman (Billy Connolly), a convicted paedophile and supposed psychic, who leads authorities to a severed limb buried in the snow.

Agent Mosley Drummy (Alvin ‘Xzibit’ Joiner) approaches Scully to re-establish contact with Mulder so that he can consult on the case.

‘If you could contact him, it might just save the life of an FBI agent,’ pleads Drummy cryptically.

Scully reluctantly agrees and she soon finds herself partnering Mulder as they provide invaluable insights to Assistant Special Agent in Charge Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet), an ardent fan of their work.

While Mulder is fascinated by Father Joe’s visions from God, Scully remains sceptical.

‘Two things you’re going to find in the next 24 hours: a dead agent and this guy is a big, fat fraud,’ she predicts, but her warnings fall on deaf ears.

The X-Files: I Want To Believe begins promisingly with the abduction of a woman from her home but struggles to sustain tension as Mulder and Scully bicker over the validity of Father Joe’s bold claims, even with a nighttime chase sequence to quicken the pulse.

On screen chemistry between the two leads still smolders and the film develops their relationship in intriguing new directions, threatening to separate the partners once and for all when Scully laments, ‘I cannot look into the darkness any more with you Mulder.

I can’t stand what it does to you or to me.’ Duchovny and Anderson slip back into their roles with ease, the latter delivering a terrific, incendiary one-liner to make her feelings clear about Father Joe’s heinous indiscretions.

Connolly is a little miscast in his provocative supporting role while Peet and Joiner remain firmly in the background.

There are flashes of brilliance in the slow-burning plot but there is nothing to justify the investigation unfolding on the big screen.

X doesn’t quite hit the spot.