FilmBlather.com

"Only demons should fear me. You're not a demon, are you?"

Like Last Night and The Game, Frequency is a fantasy where the specifics of How and Why are ignored. It's the human reaction that matters. In the film, a man is able to talk to his dead father in the past via an old HAM radio. All we know is that this phenomenon has something to do with solar flares and/or the aurora borealis. We're not told, nor do we need to be told any more than that; it's irrelevant. What happens as a result is far more interesting.

John Sullivan, a middle-aged cop, takes the HAM radio out of the closet because of nostalgia. He and his friend Gordon (Noah Emmerich, younger brother of screenwriter Toby) recall how John's father always lectured them on the radio not being a toy so they decide to get it out and play with it again. It doesn't work until after Gordon leaves. The person whom John is able to contact lives 30 years ago. It is his father, Frank (Dennis Quaid), a firefighter who is to die on the job a day after he contacts his son in the future.

Because John knows the date of his father's death and the circumstances surrounding it, he is able to prevent it. In the process, however, the two change the past in a less desirable way, causing something tragic and unexpected. Because Frank didn't die the day he was supposed to, a bizarre coincidence causes the death of his wife and several other innocent women. Now, John and Frank must stop these killings before they occur, having to get around disbelieving authorities without getting hurt themselves.

Frequency's premise isn't realistic, but the movie is completely plausible. The characters are simple but nicely written and sympathetic, especially Frank, who always tried to be the hero for his son and then realized, for better or for worse, that John has done just fine without him. John's conflict with his girlfriend and his mother is never fully explored, but to have done so may have added needless contrivances to the concise, riveting plot.

When the two men first make contact in the film's initial moments, we get that tingling feeling of wonder that is the trademark of great fantasy. By the movie's halfway point, it has evolved into an effective, suspenseful thriller that works without being lurid. Director Gregory Hoblit (Fallen, Primal Fear) allows Frequency to flow so smoothly that we barely notice the genre-hopping transitions. His film involves us emotionally both in the characters and in the action.

I'm not quite sure what to make of Jim Caviezel's performance here. On one hand, he avoids being over-the-top -- his uttering of lines like "C'mon dad, spirit and guts!" could easily have turned into sentimental goo -- instead downplaying his role so that his character is at least believable. On the other hand, he fails to give John a personality and remains a sort of cipher throughout, though I'm willing to concede that the lack of elaboration on the character could have been the unfortunate result of time constraints for this already long film. In any case, Dennis Quaid takes our attention away from any Caviezel's deficiencies with a touching, affectionate performance. He oozes fatherly love.

Frequency is at once a crowd pleaser, an intelligent thriller and a heartfelt drama. It brushes science aside -- the logic of time paradoxes here, just like pretty much everywhere else, is faulty -- and deals only with the human story. Frequency doesn't convince us that time travel and paradoxes is possible but if it were, the situation the movie presents seems like it would be a plausible one.