Frequency (2000)
Directed by Gregory Hoblit
When a rare phenomenon gives police officer John Sullivan the chance to speak to his father, 30 years in the past, he takes the opportunity to prevent his dad's tragic death. After his actions inadvertently give rise to a series of brutal murders he and his father must find a way to fix the consequences of altering time.
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11 films that influenced Frequency
What critics say influenced Frequency
But as with “modern” mentions of Pepsi Free and a DeLorean in “Back to the Future,” these have aged into charmingly dated details of an innovative time-crossing thriller blending “Future’s” rush with “Backdraft’s” firefighting and a dash of “Zodiac.”
Neither man ever travels bodily from one era to another, thus eliminating the need to concoct some dubious deus ex time-machina like, say, the time-warping DeLorean hot rod of "Back to the Future."
There are a lot of "Back to the Future" moments - photographs with family members appearing and disappearing - and a healthy dose of "It's a Wonderful Life" moments as well - with family members either dying or being reunited after death in another timeline.
Frequency alternates between gripping and sentimental, suspenseful and clever, with disarming ease; the time-travel gimmick works because of its novelty, and because none of the characters can control it the way they would, say, the DeLorean in Back to the Future.
Of course, as anyone who has seen the Back to the Future movies could tell you, meddling with the past is bound to complicate things, and although you don’t need a degree in chaos theory to follow the rest of the story, it wouldn’t hurt.
Effective, too, are knowing touches reminiscent of the "Back to the Future" movies.
The fact that many critics are praising this crater as a mountain baffles me, making it the October Sky (last spring’s phenomenally overrated critical darling) of 2000.
Even though parts of Frequency reminded me of other time-travel fare, like Back to the Future or the âCity on the Edge of Foreverâ episode of the original Star Trek TV series, I enjoyed it more for the father-son relationships that parallel October Sky and Field of Dreams.
April 30, 2000 -- While "Frequency" is arguably a tale of science fiction, it is also arguably a tale of fantasy which invites a very unlikely comparison to none other than, "Field of Dreams."
Caviezel and Quaid both acquit themselves well, although some of the baseball "bonding" scenes haul in more corn than "Field of Dreams" ever dreamed of.
Think of "Frequency" as "The Sixth Sense" meets "Field of Dreams", but with a little bit of "Back to the Future" thrown in for good measure.
Of course, all time-travel films both good (Time After Time) and bad (Time Cop) ultimately bite off more than they can chew in trying to create logical-seeming constructions that are elastic enough to encompass situations outside our normal frame of understanding.
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Nor is it a successfully manipulative tear-jerker in the manner of Terms of Endearment or The Joy Club.
There are a lot of "Back to the Future" moments - photographs with family members appearing and disappearing - and a healthy dose of "It's a Wonderful Life" moments as well - with family members either dying or being reunited after death in another timeline.
There have certainly been fascinating, complex films that have scrutinized masculinity over the last decade and a half Bull Durham, Fight Club, Ma Vie En Rose but Frequency cannot claim to be among them.
The elder Sullivan is a macho good ol� boy; a spiritual cousin to Quaid�s cocksure, smartass astronaut Gordo Cooper from 1983�s The Right Stuff, whose Brooklyn accent is as thick as the firefighting uniform he dons before hosing down flames for a living.
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There have certainly been fascinating, complex films that have scrutinized masculinity over the last decade and a half Bull Durham, Fight Club, Ma Vie En Rose but Frequency cannot claim to be among them.
Elizabeth Mitchell fills the thinly-drawn wife/mother role with as much capability as the script will allow (which isn’t much), and Noah Emmerich (The Truman Show) is okay in the equally limited role of John’s best friend.