Unlike many eager fans awaiting the arrival of The X-Files movie, before watching The X-Files: I Want to Believe, I had never spent even five minutes with the iconic Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Fox Mulder (David Duchovny). I thought about watching a few episodes or doing a bit of research, but after I heard director (and series creator) Chris Carter say he wanted the film to not only be a present for avid fans but a stand-alone introduction to the X-Files world for those who had never before entered it, I decided I would go in as a test of the latter. And while I cannot speak for all the longtime series' fans, as a previously uninitiated viewer, let's just say that after watching the movie, my next DVD purchase will probably be a series or two of The X-Files television series.

Because mystery truly is The X-Files' game, I will not reveal the events of the film's story in this review. They are intriguing and thought-provoking. The course of their discovery takes enough interesting twists and turns to keep you engaged throughout. But the aspect of The X-Files: I Want to Believe that drew me in the most were the characters, specifically Dana Scully and Fox Mulder, and how they all dealt with the events that kept unfolding around them. Although the story opens the door for the places that Scully and Mulder go, it is the different ways they each respond to and deal with what they find that actually gives the story the its greatest dimension.

Between the FBI case that pulls Scully and Mulder back to the work they thought they had left behind and a medical case Scully is working on at her hospital job, the core of what Scully and Mulder must deal with is at the intersection of science and faith, logic and belief, and that which can be proven and that which can only be proposed. On one side of the equation are advanced medical procedures, solid test results, and proven investigative techniques. On the other are psychic visions, leaps of faith, and a belief in the authority and presence of a higher power.

Calling Scully and Mulder back to the Bureau is Father Joe (Billy Connolly), a former priest who claims to be receiving visions from God related to a critical case. If you've seen the previews, he's the one with the crazy white hair, crying blood, frantically digging in the snow, and shouting out profound things to whomever happens to be around. The problem is, his past is not exactly the picture of the ideal prophet.

For most of the FBI task force, Father Joe is nothing more than a waste of time, his visions the probable games of their prime suspect and nothing more. For Scully, the idea of God speaking through a man is something her faith tells her to believe; it's just the man who claims to be conveying God's voice that she has trouble buying. While Mulder seems to have had his fair share of struggles with his own faith in everything ranging from God to those around him, as he puts it, "Let's just say, I want to believe." And although he may be the one to always doubt almost any truth, Mulder also proves himself to be the one most likely to give any possibility a chance.

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