The Movie is Out there

Okay, the critics are likely going to rip this one to shreds, and I don't think that the plot will hold up to very close scrutiny- but I sat there for 140 minutes, in the dark with three other people (not going to be a blockbuster in Aberdeen,SD, I don't think) with a silly ass grin on my face the whole time.

The years show on Mulder and Scully (perhaps not so much on Skinner, but we only see him for a cameo's worth of time so it was hard to tell), and that's only right because the story begins long after the series ended, with Scully a doctor in a Catholic hospital, and Mulder a hairy recluse in a rural farmhouse. Both are pulled, reluctantly, back to the FBI to help, or perhaps debunk, a psychic pedophile ex-priest (Billy Connolly, in a great performance, with just the right amount of defiant creepiness), as he tromps through a lot of snow, in search of a missing female agent.

But that's not important. What's important is that Chris Carter and the cast stepped back into that universe as though they'd never been gone. Everything I wanted in an extended X-Files episode was there- the interplay between Mulder and Scully, each one's quest for answers (his in the paranormal, hers in science, neither one getting the answer they thought they wanted), the theme song (oh how I've missed the theme song). And yeah, a little smoochy.

The movie doesn't rank up there with the great episodes- it wasn't Small Potatoes, or Post Modern Prometheus, or Jose Chung's From Outer Space. It wasn't even Rain King. But it was good. The story was entertaining, and there was just exactly enough of the right kind of exposition seamlessly woven into the the story line (the what the hell have they been doing the last 6 years? stuff)And I enjoyed every minute of it (okay, maybe the snow chases could have been cut a bit, but really, they were okay too). The final M/S scene was touching, and just right- for the movie and for the characters, leaving plenty of room for more stories (please).

Tomorrow, I'll read reviews bemoaning plot points that don't make sense, wailing about the absence of The Cigarette Man, The Lone Rangers or Krycek, or any of the recurring characters (except that bit of Skinner), and that infernal conspiracy, and maybe they'll even be right (at least a little bit), but I won't care. For awhile today, I was back with a couple of my favorite people in one of my favorite universes, and that was enough.