Frequency (2000) * * * *

Directed by:  Gregory Hoblit

Starring:  Dennis Quaid, Jim Caviezel, Elizabeth Mitchall, Shawn Doyle, Andre Braugher, Noah Emmerich

Gregory Hoblit's Frequency starts with a premise in which one needs to suspend a great deal of disbelief and turns into a special film.     The plot involves the bending of the space-time continuum in ways that would make Dr. Emmett Brown from Back To The Future envious.    Frequency works its way meticulously through a plot while maintaining its heart.     It is not a heartless gimmick picture.    It works emotionally and more or less logically.     Its conclusion does stretch credulity, but the emotional payoff is worth it.

Frequency stars Jim Caviezel (Passion of the Christ) as New York cop John Sullivan, who is investigating a series of unsolved murders from the late 60's.    He still lives in his childhood home and his wife recently left him.     His father Frank (Quaid) was a firefighter who died in a warehouse fire when John was 6.    John finds a ham radio in a closet and turns it on to see if it still works.    It does, and thanks to something to do with the Northern Lights, John is able to talk in 1999 on the radio to his father in 1969, days before his death.    There are natural suspicions on both sides because, let's face it, why wouldn't there be?    How eerie is it, though, when Frank asks John whether he thinks the Mets will win the 1969 World Series and John replies, "That happened 30 years ago."? 

Frank, of course, thinks John is crazy when he reveals that the man he is speaking to is his now 36 year old son.    In a scene which underlines the film's brilliance, John attempts to warn his father about the fire which will occur the next day and cost him his life, unless he listens to John's desperate pleas to warn him.     Frank, of course, could have just shut the radio off and never heard from John again, but he says, "What fire?  What are you talking about?".    After all, what if the man on the other end is telling the truth?     This underlines the film's insight into human nature.     

The details of each game of the 1969 World Series plays a key part in the events that follow.    As does the details of the murder investigation John is conducting in the present, which takes a sharp, personal turn for the worse after Frank survives the fire he was ultimately supposed to perish in.    Frank's survival turns out to be the best, and worst, thing for his family.     How the film plays with timelines and covers its tracks is a wonder to behold.    It plays on the notion that an event changed in the past will directly alter the present, although only John recognizes the difference in timelines and no one else does.    He remembers his dad dying in the fire and then living through it.    No other characters feel the same impact.   Trying to sort all this out logically is a fool's errand anyway, so we just let the paradoxes fall where they may.   

The underlying emotional truth is what carries Frequency along.    Having lost my father six months ago, I would love nothing more than a chance to hear his voice again once more or see him once more.    It's a universal response to loss.    John Sullivan is able to hear a voice he never thought he would hear again.    He is able to tell his father about a World Series he never saw the end of.    I spoke often with my father about sports.    What a privilege it would be to be able to tell my dad about the Patriots winning this year's Super Bowl?    Or something even more personal?    Frequency understands that and more.