Product: Frequency (2000)
Rating: 3.0
relatively intriguing sci-fi thriller
A relatively intelligent sci-fi thriller that in the end doesn't really amount to much, "Frequency" emerges as a father/son reconciliation drama with a "Twilight Zone" twist. Written by Toby Emmerich and directed by Gregory Hoblit, the film stars Dennis Quaid as a New York firefighter in 1969 who manages, through some fluke of nature, to contact his very own son, Johnny (Jim Caviezel), via short wave radio, thirty years in the future. The filmmakers manage to come up with a surprisingly large number of narrative twists and turns to keep this potentially one-note premise intriguing and interesting as father and son come to know each other across the normally uncrossable chasm of time. For instance, Johnny not only has to try to reverse history and prevent his father's untimely death in a fire in 1969, but also to thwart the murders of his mother and of several other women by a serial killer during that same time period.A film like "Frequency" really doesn't have much going for it but the ingenuity of its plot. Whenever it tries to get meaningful and touching, particularly in its exploration of the father/son relationship, the film dissolves in a puddle of hopelessly contrived and manufactured sentimentality. On the other hand, "Frequency" does manage to keep to a minimum the maddening inconsistencies and lapses in logic that invariably accompany these time-bending scenarios. Moreover, the filmmakers make clever use of the famous 1969 World Series, astutely finding ways to incorporate it into the fabric of the drama. On a trivial level, the film does seem to suffer from an apparent oversight on the part of its makers. The movie is supposed to be set in New York City in the Octobers of 1969 and 1999 - yet, correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't at least some of the trees be turning colors and dropping leaves by that time? As far as we can tell, the movie seems to have been filmed during the summer months. For a film whose very foundation is to question the very nature of time, this seemingly insignificant error looms larger than it perhaps otherwise might.A film of this sort really doesn't stand up to too close scrutiny. A viewer either accepts the incredibility of the premise and goes with it, or rejects the concept out of hand and moves on to another film. Suffice it to say then that, given its fundamental plot-is-everything nature, "Frequency" makes for reasonably diverting and absorbing viewing.