I Want To Believe, the second movie X-File after 1998’s Fight The Future, catches up with the paranormal-obsessed couple several years after the show’s climactic court case debunked Mulder’s life’s work... .

Scully has since found employment at a convent hospital, while Mulder spends his days cutting out newspaper articles on mysterious cases he can no longer investigate, holed up in his house to avoid an outstanding FBI warrant for his arrest.

Meanwhile, a Federal Agent's abducted from her home, and the only clues to her whereabouts come from Billy Connolly’s paedophile priest, who claims to be receiving visions that will help guide the Feds to their missing member.

With no idea how to proceed, the FBI ask Scully to talk to the reclusive Mulder, whose inevitable refusal of the call (he’s grown a beard, after all) is soon swept aside as his interest is piqued. He gets his razor out.

Carter would have the audience believe this is an X-File in the vein of the ‘freak of the week’ classics, such as Tooms (about a psychotic man who could squeeze through any size hole) or Darkness Falls (human-devouring insects), but the truth is, it’s nothing of the sort.

The script is far more concerned with Mulder and Scully’s reactions to their unscheduled return to work while a subplot involving Scully’s child-patient back at the nunnery is a comment on the stem cell research debate, juxtaposed with the backdrop of the abductor's actions.

The movie's biggest mystery involves a reformed paedophile priest (Billy Connolly!), who could possibly be psychic. But the movie is, naturally, founded on the pairs’ relationship.

Duchovny and Anderson slip right back into their roles and undoubtedly still have chemistry – yet spend much of the film apart.  Their FBI equivalents, Amanda Peet’s Agent Whitney and Xzibit’s Agent Drummy, come and go with varying degrees of impact.

Carter’s visual flair remains – the bleak, snowy landscapes are beautifully shot, and the fleeting action scenes are handled with aplomb.

Rich Phippen