Frequency

Reviewed by:
Eric Alt

Imagine if, at the end of Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner’s character not only got to play catch with his Dad, but Pops came back just in time to foil a dangerous serial killer and solve the 1919 Black Sox scandal. Sound stupid? Well, Frequency takes just such a brilliant concept and runs with it…straight into the ground.

The movie’s setup involves a rare occurrence of the Aurora Borealis over New York and a mysterious ham radio with which John Sullivan (Jim Caviezel) discovers he can contact his firefighter dad Frank (Dennis Quaid), who went down in flames in 1969. John decides to screw with the past and help Frank survive the fire, resulting in all-new memories of a father he hardly knew. With a great deal of screen time dedicated to the three B’s—booze, baseball, and fire—we were willing to give this male-bonding fable a chance. But when the movie suddenly turns into Se7en with a dash of Back to the the Future (John and Frank attempt to foil a serial killer bent on hacking up nurses), it devolves into a plodding and lifeless thriller.

Caviezel’s John is a stoic character—so stoic, in fact, that he doesn’t seem remotely phased by the entire talking-to-his-dead-father concept. Come to think of it, everyone in the movie seems to accept this way too easily. Then there’s the wild tailspin that the plot takes in the third act. Quaid is a likable rogue of a dad, but watching him morph into Magnum P.I. and wrestle armed serial killers strained whatever credibility this already thin flick had left. The performances are generally adequate (Andre Braugher trounces typecasting by playing yet another weary cop), but with so many movies lacking enough plot to hold the audience’s interest for more than 10 minutes, Frequency at two hours is merciless overkill.

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