Product: Frequency (2000)
Rating: 5.0
Suspense Meets Storytelling in this Multi-faceted Thriller
I just saw Frequency and was quite impressed.Parts of the film sent chills down my spine. Both the casting and the acting were extremely good in this movie. Jim Caveizel (who played the homeless addict in the less-than-stellar Pay It Forward) is perfect for the part here, as is Dennis Quaid for the role of his father.The film is about a policeman in Queens, NY, whose firefighter dad died in the line of duty when he was six years old (in 1966). Thirty years later, on an October night in 1999, as he is fiddling with his ham radio, the now 36-year-old son hears a voice coming from the radio that is somehow familiar. Unbeknownst to both men at first, his father is on the other "end," and is speaking to him from 1969, the day before he is to be killed in the fire. When the son ("John Sullivan") figures out that he's speaking to his father, he quickly tells his father about the terrible fire that will occur the next day, and tells him about the fatal mistake his father made 30 years before, in an effort to prevent the tragedy and save his father's life. Luckily, the plan works, and the Senior Sullivan ("Frank"), changes his actions accordingly on the day of the blaze and survives the fire. Unfortunately, the fact of his survival changes things beyond either of their imaginations. Everything the father does now that he is alive will affect everything else, since he "wasn't supposed to be there." This is an interesting part of the film, because I'm sure people often think, "what if I/they had done that instead, where would I be now?...what impact would that have had on the world, or on other people's lives.... would I have met my spouse/been in an accident/avoided an accident?" etc, etc...A parallel storyline is that John (the son) is working on a case involving a serial killer who goes after nurses (the "Nightingale Murders," they're called). But after he saves his father's life, his mother (a nurse) suddenly disappears from the family pictures... and he has to find a way to save both her (in the past, through communicating with his father) and any other of the serial killer's victims, (and also figure out the identity and whereabouts of the killer, in order to save them). The plot may sound a bit silly and outlandish in such a brief description, but the actors and the details play this out so well that it becomes a riveting, suspenseful film. The film makes up for any deficiencies in the realism (of radio time-travel) with an engaging story, lots of well-paced action, and characters who are played so well that you care what happens to them, and want it to be good. It is an interesting journey into "what-if's," and even though those of us who have lost a parent may cry for a second at the end when that soft, country song plays, we will be better for the experience of the film, as it is a nice story (ie: the idea of being able to see the loved ones we have lost again and live with them, side-by-side again and do the things we always did together), nicely told. The film offers a loving portrait of a father-son relationship. Some nice flashback images of John's childhood with his father (and mother and best friend, who we also see as older adults) complete the picture, making it watchable and endearing without being sappy or overly sentimental. Plus, the idea of the father and son team solving a case together as age contemporaries but in different "times/eras" was a new spin on an old formula, and I found it really interesting. Each storyline (the son who lost his father and was still grieving thirty years later, and the crime story), had enough good material for two solid, separate movies. Together, they create a really memorable, enjoyable movie experience. Another bonus here is the lack of real violence. I found it refreshing to see a thriller that was so suspenseful and entertaining and thought-provoking that it didn't have to rely on mindless violence to get its point across. Violence wouldn't have added to the story, and without it, the story sets itself apart from other films in the same genre with a more humanist, sensitive approach. The film definetely shines in that regard. This is also a movie that baseball fans will appreciate, as it has some interesting scenes involving the son foretelling some future (for the father) games.As far as overall mood and tone go, the nearest film I can think of (the most similar) is the excellent The Sixth Sense. This movie is like that film, but without the ghosts.The DVD features background data on phenomena such as Aurora Borealis (the Northern Lights), Ham Radios, and the influence of solar events on such radio frequencies. The various people interviewed in the extensive extras are real scientists who know their stuff. This was definetely a loaded, interesting DVD.