Susan Granger’s review of “FREQUENCY” (New Line Cinema)
Once you see this movie, you can’t stop thinking about it. “Frequency” poses the question: What if you could travel back in time and change your past? That’s the dilemma that faces NYPD Detective John Sullivan (John Caviezel) who discovers that, while using an old ham radio just when a natural phenomenon, an aurora borealis, is lighting up the night sky, he is actually talking with a man who died 30 years earlier – his own father. Back in 1969, his dad, Frank Sullivan (Dennis Quaid), was killed fighting a warehouse fire. But what if John could warn his father and, thereby, save his life? It’s worth a try, isn’t it? But, then, if it works, the past is inexorably changed, so what happens to the present? That’s all I’m going to tell you about the plot. Like “The Sixth Sense,” this is not a movie you want to know too much about. Toby Emmerich has written a stunning, multi-layered thriller that’s part murder mystery, involving a serial killer, part family drama, revolving around the loving relationship of father and son. Science-fiction time-travel fantasy goes back to Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, and Emmerich’s imaginative contribution is cutting-edge. Credibility is maintained and continuity matches, despite the complicated plot twists and mind-bending paradoxes involving temporal intersections with parallel universes. Director Gregory Hoblit (“Primal Fear”) keeps the action fast-paced and the tension taut, shooting the ham radio scenes like a live, multi-camera TV show. What’s on the screen is totally entertaining, emotionally gripping, and so thought-provoking that you may want to see it twice. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Frequency” is an exciting, surprising 10. If you’re into edge-of-the-seat suspense pulling the cosmic strings of time travel, “Frequency” will light your fuse.
