Product: Frequency (2000)
Rating: 4.0
Very moving and unusual sci-fi thriller
I think that Frequency's screenwriter, Toby Emmerich, set out to write a rather original sci-fi movie script. This he did, but he also wound up creating something more. Frequency is one of the best stories about the relationship between father and son ever. I can recommend it as a sci-fi thriller. I can highly recommend it as a modern American drama.As always, I will give you a short plot synopsis, but I must add that, on paper, the story loses something in transition and seems a bit goofy.John Sullivan [James Caviezel] is a cop who lives in the house he grew up in in New York City's Queens borough. He is a a low point in his life now that his wife has walked out on him. One day he and his best friend Gordo [Noah Emmerich] find an old ham radio that John's deceased Dad owned. One night, during a huge display in the sky by the northern lights, some sort of cosmic disturbance occurs. The fabric of time is altered, and John finds himself talking on the old radio to his father, Frank [Dennis Quaid]. Once both of them determine it is not a hoax, John tells Frank, who is living in 1969, that he would not have died in a warehouse fire if only he had tried to escape the other way. The next day, the anniversary of his death, Frank, a fireman, does turn the other way and survives. Joy soon turns to horror when the men discover that they have inadvertently changed the future. They must work together to prevent an even greater tragedy.It is in the two's working together that the story takes flight. Father and son are separated by time. All of their interaction takes place through this ham radio, each man sitting at the same desk thirty years apart. The love between the two is so real and so strong that even the hardest of grown men might shed a tear or two while watching the movie. Caviezel is brilliant, and Quaid is better than he has been in years. I think much of the credit goes to director Gregory Hoblit. Most of his experience has been in television, most notably directing episodes of Hill Street Blues and LA Law. His knowledge of the small screen is part of what makes the scenes between father and son so intimate and believable. Also compelling is how each actor seems so much a part of their time. This is a subtle but important difference that only greatly talented people can bring off. Some great performances are also given by Noah Emmerich, Elizabeth Mitchell as Julia Sullivan, Daniel Henson as John at age six, and Shawn Doyle as Jack Shepard, the villain of the movie.INSIDE SHOTS: Writer Toby Emmerich originally used the idea of a small black hole's causing the time fracture. The studio decided that wasn't filmable enough. Don't blame Emmerich for the illogical substitution of northern lights...