Product: Frequency (2000)
Rating: 5.0
Thought-Provoking AND Suspenseful AND Great Aurorae
Considering watching movies to be a waste of time, I very nearly missed this. Mom brought Frequency home from the library one day and told me that it dealt with time travel, with a present person's disruption of the past. "Oh, how original, ha, ha," I thought. Nevertheless, I decided that it could not hurt to watch the beginning, and, after seeing the awe-inspiring auroral activity and hearing it explained in relation to string theory, I thought I'd stick around to see where this film was going. Boy, was I glad I did...First of all, no time travel, at least in the popularly accepted sense, actually occurs; that is, every character remains in his appropriate time. To be accurate, it is a movie about the synchronism of two plotscapes 30 years distant. As the interact, small changes in the earlier result in a myriad of variations in the later and the intervening decades. I believe that Frequency's theory is valid insofar as events we assume to occur chronologically are actually, if they could be seen from a higher-dimensional perspective (i.e. that of God, certainly incomprehensible to humans!), synchronous. (This is much closer to the view presented in Slaughterhouse 5, though Frequency still relates.) In fact, I accept the idea that given the right circumstances--perhaps a large-scale magnetic storm would play a role--communication between these different times may be possible. However, I also believe that all of time was created with all of space, and that, just as a line stretches out within a plane, everything that has happened and will happen is immutably laid out within this third temporal dimension. Thus, even if inter-time communication were to take place, all of future and past would remain unchanged, for the effects of this interaction have already been ingrained into the grand scheme of time. (On a side note, yes, this does entail predestination; no, that neither precludes free-will nor excuses laziness--but that is another essay in itself.) Unfortunately, this theory does not lend itself well to film.Well, enough of my philosophical musings. I do hope that this movie will immerse you in such abstruse, mindbending ruminations--and then if anyone ever tells you that you cannot stimulate your mind while staring into a television screen, gainsay them with one word: Frequency. Of course, I suppose that the idea of movie grounded in the abstract reasoning of modern theoretical physics does not titillate everyone. Thus, I ought to mention that this is by no means the entirety of the film. Its gripping, suspenseful tale of murder is sure to keep the viewer enthralled. The climax is one of the most exciting I've seen (though granted, coming from me, that's not saying a whole lot), and the final resolution is great--cool enough that for a moment I forgot how this movie contradicts to my metaphysical ideas. I dare not say more than that, but know that Frequency is a complete film, not one of those movies that leaves the viewer asking, "That's it?!" Although the gravity of the murder thriller prevails, the movie does also contain a few humorous touches. For the sentimentalists, it is also a touching story of the relationship between father and son. Furthermore, I must say again that the auroral scenes are spectacular (especially for New York). This movie delights on so many accounts that to reserve two hours for watching it is definitely worthwhile!~pythia~