Frequency hits just the right wavelength to be successful. The story involves John Sullivan whose fireman father died a hero’s death thirty years ago trying to save a young girl from dying in a warehouse fire. John grew up to be a cop, but never recovered from losing his father those three decades ago. Two nights before the thirtieth anniversary of his father’s death, during an unusually strong display of the Aurora Borealis, John gets an unusual message on his father’s old ham radio. The message is from his father who is broadcasting from the exact same radio in the exact same spot, but exactly thirty years earlier. At first both men are naturally confused, then believe they are the butt of a practical joke, but as they talk they realize the truth. The signal is not strong though and as it fades out John desperately tells his father what he should do different to survive the fire that kills him. This allows both Frank and the girl he was trying to save to get out of the fire alive, changing history and filling John with memories of a happier life spent with a father who didn’t die. However change one thing in the past and you change others, like a pebble traveling down a mountain can result in an avalanche. Frank’s survival leads in turn to the survival of a serial killer who goes on to kill more women then he would originally have killed…one of whom is John’s mother. Desperately; not knowing how much longer they will be able to communicate, Frank and John share information across the years trying to change history again by stopping a killer whose true identity is unknown even in John’s time.
Frequency is a unique time travel movie in that no one actually travels through time. The feel of the movie is something of a cross between two other excellent time travel movies Back To The Future and Time After Time containing the optimism of the former with the darker tone of the latter. Unfortunately these two moods never mesh which, for me, was the film’s biggest drawback. My wife also felt that some of the actions of the characters in the movie were, well, stupid and detracted from the movie. I agree with her that some of the characters actions were not well thought out, but I felt that those actions were the sort of behavior that real people might engage in, especially in a crisis, and not necessarily poor writing within the movie itself. Despite these flawsFrequency is an extremely good movie; one that’s fun and keeps you guessing toward the end. I strongly recommend you see it...while there’s still time.
Average Grade: A
