Product: Frequency (2000)
Rating: 4.0
Can you hear me how?
Frequency takes an interesting twist on the concept of time travel. Nobody actually travels forward or backward in time in this movie. Instead, a son talks to his now deceased father 30 years in the past over the ham radio because of freakish sun storms that occur exactly 30 years apart. This makes for an interesting movie as we see a son getting to know the father he lost as a child.When it comes to movies or television handling the concept of time travel, you have to make two decisions. One ? does the story set up and adhere to any rules addressing how time travel and the consequences thereof will be governed. Two ? are your willing to accept these rules. In Frequency, the rules are that anything that happens 30 years in the past to change events in the future is noticed exactly 30 years later. For example, when John Sullivan?s father accidentally burns the desk, the burn mark (still warm) appears before John?s eyes who is sitting at the same desk exactly thirty years later. I found this somewhat annoying, but the rest of the movie was done well enough that I decided to go ahead an accept this.In the movie, John Sullivan (James Caviezel) talks to his father, Frank, thirty years in the past over the ham radio because of sun storms that occur exactly thirty years apart in 1969 and 1999. John warns his father that he will die in a fire (Frank is a firefighter), which allows Frank to avoid his untimely demise. This alters history in ways that lead to John?s mother later being murdered by a serial killer. John remembers both timelines because he was involved in changing the past (another of the movie?s time travel rules you have to accept). John warns Frank of what has happened, and they work together to follow the events that lead to Julia Sullivan?s murder in order to alter history once again.If the plot sounds somewhat convoluted and contrived, it is. But it is done well enough and provides for a rather entertaining two hours. The focus is on John and Frank as they reestablish the bond they lost when Frank died thirty years ago. Dennis Quaid does a good job as Frank Sullivan, almost overshadowing James Caviezel?s performance as John Sullivan. Quaid is an excellent actor who has unfortunately been cast in more than a few mediocre movies. In Frequency, though, he is given the material that an actor of his talent deserves.The DVD version has most of the usual additional features such as comments by the director and writer as well as biographies of the cast. One of the more interesting of the additional features is a short documentary on the science behind the movie. It does not provide a completely sound scientific backing to what transpires in the movie (not that you would really expect it to) but it does have some interesting information on how sun storms have affected ham radio transmissions.