"THE X-FILES"
X-Files Turned Feature Thriller is for Insiders
Who hasn't walked into a movie late and tried desperately to catch
up with the plot, to make sense of what's on the screen? For those
not washed in the blood, that's what it's like to watch "The
X-Files" movie. Except instead of being only momentarily tardy,
we're five years behind the curve.
That's how long the popular cult TV show has been on the Fox
network. And despite impressive billboards for the movie insisting
"Only in Theaters," only those familiar with the small-screen series
will get many of the film's characters and references. Despite
attempts to make "The X-Files" palatable to nonbelievers, its
creators couldn't resist a series of complicit winks to the
cognoscenti that can only irritate those not in the know.
"The X-Files" movie is put together by many of the same people
responsible for the series, starting with writer-producer Chris
Carter, the show's creator. Director Rob Bowman has directed 25
episodes over five years, and editor Stephen Mark and composer
Mark Snow are both veterans as well. So it's not surprising that
what we've got here is essentially a big-budget version of the small
screen, kind of a "Triple-X-Files" to reward the faithful.
With its shrewd mixture of paranoia and the paranormal, the way
its elaborate mythology combines enigmatic phenomena with
potent cabals intent on running the world, "The X-Files" experience
resembles "Twin Peaks" crossed with "The Twilight Zone." It's
even replete with recurring characters without real names: Who is
the Cigarette-Smoking Man (William B. Davis) after all but the
Log Lady with a bad nicotine habit?
At the heart of things are Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana
Scully (Gillian Anderson), a pair of FBI agents usually assigned to
investigate the inexplicable. The film awkwardly attempts to fill in
five years' worth of back story on this pair, letting us know that
Mulder is the true believer who thinks his sister was abducted by
aliens, while Scully is the cool, unflappable rationalist, someone not
quick to believe sinister forces are out to control the universe.
When the movie opens, Mulder and Scully have been reassigned
to an anti-terrorism unit in the Dallas FBI bureau, the X-Files
having been officially closed. While they're trying to prevent a
major bomb from going off, something seriously weird is going on
in a small town in rural Texas.
In an echo of something we saw happen 35,000 years ago, a boy
stumbles onto an underground cave and gets more than he
bargained for from a skull he encounters. Local paramedics are
called and suddenly the area is teaming with helicopters, unmarked
tanker trucks and impatient men in white quarantine suits. "That
impossible scenario we never planned for," a man says into a
phone. "We better come up with a plan."
If this sounds vague, it's because "The X-Files" likes it that way.
Writer Carter, director Bowman and cinematographer Ward
Russell are expert at doling out information one intriguing dollop at
a time. Things get more or less explained by the close, but the fun
of "The X-Files" is clearly more in the creation of unease than in
the cleaning up of mysteries.
Though the inside baseball stuff, like the appearance of three
oddballs known as the Lone Gunmen that no one but constant
viewers will understand, let alone appreciate, is a continual
frustration, the rest of the movie is a properly spooky, always
professional diversion that is happiest when it's throwing continual
plot complexities into the mix.
At the center of things is Dr. Alvin Kurtzweil (veteran Martin
Landau), a renegade scientist who says he was a friend of
Mulder's father. His knowledge of all things sinister leads Mulder
and Scully to not only the Cigarette-Smoking Man but also the
Well-Manicured Man (John Neville) and an operative who has the
audacity to have a real name, albeit the strange one of Conrad
Strughold (Armin Mueller-Stahl).
As much as these creepy doings, it's the too-hip relationship
between Mulder and Scully (co-workers who never resort to first
names and have a lot of conversations on mobile phones) that is a
major "X-Files" attraction. Their supercool attitudes, however, are
too distant to work as well on the big screen, and the intense
interest devotees have in whether they'll ever kiss is not one that
beginning viewers should expect to share in.
While it's not the ideal introduction to the phenomenon, this feature
is assured of at least an "X-Files"-sized audience. People are
always happy to believe, as Hamlet (who would've been a viewer
had the show been available) said to a friend: "There are more
things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your
philosophy."
* MPAA rating: PG-13 for some intense violence and gore.
guidelines: some violence, gruesome doings and unpleasant-looking
creatures.
'The X-Files'
David Duchovny: Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson: Dana Scully
Martin Landau: Dr. Alvin Kurtzweil
Blythe Danner: FBI Assistant Director Dana Cassidy
Armin Mueller-Stahl: Conrad Strughold
A Ten Thirteen production, released by 20th Century Fox.
Director Rob Bowman. Producers Chris Carter, Daniel Sackheim.
Executive producer Lata Ryan.
Screenplay by Chris Carter. Story
by Chris Carter and Frank Sponitz.
Cinematographer Ward
Russell.
Editor Stephen Mark.
Costumes Marlene Stewart.
Music
Mark Snow.
Production design Christopher Nowak.
Running time:
2 hours, 1 minute.