David O'ConnellFrequency
November 21st 2008 02:27
Gregory Hoblit’s drama, released in 2000, is a curious concoction, lumbered with a concept, that on paper, shouldn’t work. But mixing elements of serial killer pursuit, supernatural suspense and a painful nostalgia for what might have been, Frequency succeeds mostly because of its two leads - the all-American father who every kid would love to have, Dennis Quaid, matched by the dark intensity of Jim Caviezel as his grown-up son.
The two strands of the narrative take place in different eras: Quaid is Frank Sullivan, loving family man and fire-fighter, who on a 1969 New York night comes across a lonely voice on his old, recently-repaired ham radio as strange weather activity encloses the city in the form of the Aurora Borealis.
Unbeknownst to him, it’s actually his son 30 years in the future, John Sullivan (Caveizel), a disillusioned New York detective who never really got over his father’s death in a warehouse fire – just two days into Frank’s future!
When the inexplicable fact of the voice’s identity established, John is able to impart life-saving advice to his dad, saving him for now. But a further threat will appear in the form of a serial killer who is murdering young women.
Altering one-strand of history sparks a cause-and-effect of further changes, and soon the film becomes a hunt for the killer, whilst sparing the life of a father who, with his son’s aid, may end up with more lives than a cat!
To say that suspension of disbelief is required to buy into the film’s central conceit would be an understatement. But somehow I get drawn in by it every time as it becomes a riveting drama and a uniquely off-beat one at that, spread over two time spans, and for whose unlikely inconsistencies the word paradox was probably invented!
Quaid’s turn as a decent family man striving for the truth is a strong one; it’s easy to empathise with him as we have in so many other roles over the years, he has that indefinable quality that endears him and makes us care about his fate.
Caveizel displays a forceful intensity as the haunted policemen whose drifting, unfulfilled existence is injected with meaning through a freakish whim of mother nature………..or the creative colouring of screenwriter Toby Emmerich’s rich imagination!
Scrutinised more heavily there are probably plot holes wide enough to drive a fleet of semi trailers through, but Hoblit’s streamlined technique, assisted by creative twists and turns along the way, makes for a satisfying thriller which is difficult to pigeonhole.
The finale appeals to that need for nostalgic recollection and fatal weakness for a dose of sentimentality in us all, one which American filmmakers readily provide with the thickest layers of course! But that eternal desire to change the past – it’s surely a powerful fantasy that we all embrace in our most outrageous private dreams.
Frequency is convincing somehow, preying as it does on our weaknesses, and is guaranteed to pull you under its spell for a couple of thoroughly satisfying and entertaining hours.
It might even end up as a guilty pleasure for you as well!
The two strands of the narrative take place in different eras: Quaid is Frank Sullivan, loving family man and fire-fighter, who on a 1969 New York night comes across a lonely voice on his old, recently-repaired ham radio as strange weather activity encloses the city in the form of the Aurora Borealis.
Unbeknownst to him, it’s actually his son 30 years in the future, John Sullivan (Caveizel), a disillusioned New York detective who never really got over his father’s death in a warehouse fire – just two days into Frank’s future!
When the inexplicable fact of the voice’s identity established, John is able to impart life-saving advice to his dad, saving him for now. But a further threat will appear in the form of a serial killer who is murdering young women.
Altering one-strand of history sparks a cause-and-effect of further changes, and soon the film becomes a hunt for the killer, whilst sparing the life of a father who, with his son’s aid, may end up with more lives than a cat!
To say that suspension of disbelief is required to buy into the film’s central conceit would be an understatement. But somehow I get drawn in by it every time as it becomes a riveting drama and a uniquely off-beat one at that, spread over two time spans, and for whose unlikely inconsistencies the word paradox was probably invented!
Dennis Quaid as Frank Sullivan listens in with disbelief.
Quaid’s turn as a decent family man striving for the truth is a strong one; it’s easy to empathise with him as we have in so many other roles over the years, he has that indefinable quality that endears him and makes us care about his fate.
Caveizel displays a forceful intensity as the haunted policemen whose drifting, unfulfilled existence is injected with meaning through a freakish whim of mother nature………..or the creative colouring of screenwriter Toby Emmerich’s rich imagination!
Jim Caveizel as John Sullivan in 1999.
Scrutinised more heavily there are probably plot holes wide enough to drive a fleet of semi trailers through, but Hoblit’s streamlined technique, assisted by creative twists and turns along the way, makes for a satisfying thriller which is difficult to pigeonhole.
The finale appeals to that need for nostalgic recollection and fatal weakness for a dose of sentimentality in us all, one which American filmmakers readily provide with the thickest layers of course! But that eternal desire to change the past – it’s surely a powerful fantasy that we all embrace in our most outrageous private dreams.
Frequency is convincing somehow, preying as it does on our weaknesses, and is guaranteed to pull you under its spell for a couple of thoroughly satisfying and entertaining hours.
It might even end up as a guilty pleasure for you as well!
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