Review: Frequency (2000)

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Frequency

Rating

Director

Gregory Hoblit

Screenplay

Toby Emmerich

Length

1h 58m

Starring

Dennis Quaid, Jim Caviezel, Shawn Doyle, Elizabeth Mitchell, Andre Braugher, Noah Emmerich, Melissa Errico, Daniel Henson, Jordan Bridges, Stephen Joffe, Jack McCormack, Peter MacNeill, Michael Cera, Marin Hinkle

MPAA Rating

PG-13

Buy/Rent Movie

Poster

Review

Losing a loved one is a traumatic experience. That loss is more detrimental for a child than for an adult. Children often want to alter the past and bring those relatives back. One night in 1999, a young police officer gets that chance, but gets far more than he bargained for.

“Frequency” stars James Caviezel (“The Thin Red Line”) as John Sullivan, who, during an unusual flare-up in the aurora borealis (northern lights), passes the night talking with a man who shares many of his interests. It’s not long before he discovers it is his father, Frank (Dennis Quaid) communicating across a 30-year span. He tells his father about his own death and thus avoids that vicious part of history, but in so doing he reaps the repercussions, including numerous life-changing events that lead to a spectacular conclusion.

I often find that movies dealing with any form of time alteration often make mistakes in their stories that make certain occurrences improbable. With “Frequency,” first-time writer Toby Emmerich weaves a nearly flawless screenplay that avoids many of the trappings of other films like it.

Unfortunately, the rest of the production brings the film down to its basest form. While Quaid turns in another believable performance, Caviezel falls far short of his promising debut in Terrence Malick’s “The Thin Red Line.” The rest of the film consists of paper-thin characterizations and often-shallow performances.

Most of the problems can be attributed to television director Gregory Hoblit’s questionable technique. Cinematographer Alar Kivilo lends a few problems as well with his sometimes two-dimensional lighting setups. It’s not often that the story supercedes the technical aspects, but “Frequency” falls into that unfortunate trap.

The story moralizes the dangers linked with rewriting your past. Sometimes you can’t escape losing what you’ve lost, no matter how hard you try. “Frequency” doesn’t quite understand this theory when it provides triumphant resolutions and instills false hope in the minds of its audience. There’s a certain moral obligation of filmmakers to uplift their viewers, but reality is too often dissimilar.

However, going to the movies has often been an escapist pastime for filmgoers intent upon relieving the tensions in their dreary lives by experiencing someone else’s existence. They want those people to be successful and victorious, but end up deluding themselves to the realities around them. I’m not saying that films like “Frequency” shouldn’t create hope in its audience’s heart, but it should also be cautious of how much hope is given.

“Frequency” is an interesting movie that will appeal to a wide audience, but reality is checked at the door for this solely escapist movie.