28 July 2008

the truth is out there

I want to believe

Hello. I am teabird, and I am an X-Files junkie. DH and I saw the movie Saturday night. Wonderful. Just wonderful.

Visually, the movie has the feel of the early Vancouver years, before the production was moved to California: dark, chilly, ambiguous. Scully and Mulder are now more mature and bonded, their daily lives no longer rooted in darkness.

Scully has devoted herself to medicine. The case she is struggling with involves a very sick boy, about the age their son William would have been. How Scully should treat his illness brings on an existential crisis, as she is forced to decide between a course dictated by science, and another that would be guided by emotions - her own, and the boy's parents'. She wants to believe in the supreme value of science, yet she has chosen to work in a Catholic hospital, where spiritual, emotional - and bureaucratic! - forces are aligned against her.

Mulder is Mulder, adorned by a beard, attractively scruffy, ensconced in a study where every available surface is pinned with a clipping about paranormal events. His signature poster, "I want to believe," rules the collection. (Of course.) He claims to be happy, but any X-Files junkie will know that's not true when the camera pans to the pencil-studded ceiling. Mulder wants to believe - but no one else does.

(Note: the study reminded me of John Nash's office in "A Beautiful Mind," one of my favorite movies, even though the fountain-pen scene was a fabrication by Ron Howard...)

Plot details can be found in any review. I'll just add one note: don't leave before the credits have ended. If you do, you'll miss something very special indeed...

8 comments:

Aunt Kathy said...

I always stay fro the credits, I am chronic about that. I read everyone, and am often the last person in the theater to walk out. My husband is always almost in the car waiting for me, he doesn't get it, LOL

By the way my sister at one time was Dayna Scully... lol

Pat said...

I ALWAYS leave before the credits, so thanks for the warning. If I can get S to go see this, I'll be there.

Bridget said...

Much like our different feelings about one Mr. Jeremy Irons, I will have to disagree with you regarding the X-Files. I never found the show interesting. And can't really stand Gillian Anderson.

In any event, it sounds like you really enjoyed yourself, and that's what it's all about, so I'm glad you had fun!

Donna Lee said...

Not having a television, I have never watched the show. I know people who are fanatic about it and I smile because I have my own fanatic obsessions. I am a true Star Trek junkie. And i am tempted to purchase an iphone. Not because I need a new phone, but because it has a feature that makes a light sabre noise when you wave it around ala Star Wars. I can see myself on the train swishing my phone through the air....

Mistrmi said...

Hannah is beside herself to see this film --- I wonder if I should dangle some of these tidbits in front of her?

Or is that just mean?

Sway Knits said...

Oh no! I saw it on Saturday and left before the credits ended! What happened? Or at least can you point me to a review that will tell me?

Jennifer said...

So you liked it? I've read some not so great reviews. However, I started watching this show when it first aired on TV, so you know I'll see it regardless.

Paula said...

We are going to see it this weekend!
I am so excited.
I too am a huge X-files junkie!