FREQUENCY

US, 1999, /118 minutes, Colour.
Denis Quaid, Jim Caviezel, Andre Braugher, Elizabeth Mitchell.
Directed by Gregory Hoblitt

In October, 1969, the Aurora Borealis is shining spectacularly in the New York City sky. Frank Sullivan is a fireman, skilled and daring in his rescues. He is a loving husband and close to his six year old son, Jack.

In October, 1999, and the Aurora is glowing once more. Jack Sullivan's life is a mess. A cop, he is introspective and depressed. His girlfriend leaves him. With the son of his childhood friend, they find his father's old ham radio. Soon he makes contact with his father from thirty years before. He is able to give his father advice that saves his life.

The consequence of this is that automatically the details and direction of his life story change.

The police find the body of the victim of a serial killer back in 1969. Jack is now able to get his father to prevent this death. Again, history changes. When his mother is about to become the next victim, Jack enables his father to stop this murder but he clashes with the killer and is arrested as a suspect. The final confrontation with the killer takes place in both 1969 as he attempts to kill John's mother and in 1999 when he tries to kill Jack. Jack is saved by his father who, because of the changes he and his son have made in their histories, is still alive.

The family history has changed from despair to love.

Writer and music producer, Toby Emmerich, has imagined not a time travel story but a time communication story. It is not people but information that goes back and forth over thirty years. He and director Gregory Hoblitt (award-winning director of Hill Street Blues and NYPD and the movies, Primal Fear, Fallen, Hart's War) have consulted with academic scientists to ensure that the physics theories used in the plot are plausible.

At the core of the movie is the story of a father and a son, the son losing his father at the age of six but suddenly finding him again thirty years later and able to save his life and let his father save his. The relationship between Denis Quaid and Jim Cavaziel is strongly drawn. Their radio communication sequences were actually filmed with the actors working together on set reinforcing the relationship.

The movie works as an intriguing drama which plays with the mysteries of time. It is also quite effective as a police thriller and mystery. It also works very well in terms of portraying loving family bonds as well as the possibility of re-shaping and healing the past.

1.An entertaining thriller? Issues of time, cross-time? Parallel universe? Changing time and people’s lives?

2.The focus on family, father-son relationships, bonding, regrets, reconciliation?

3.How effective as a police thriller, as a murder mystery, as an action film?

4.The combining of the two time stories: 1969: John as a boy, his father and his kindness, his relationship with his mother? The 1999 story, John and his sense of failure, Gordon, their friendship, finding his father? The murder of 1969 and its repercussions in 1999? How plausible was this kind of communication, time travel?

5.The title, the reference to radio? The opening, the aurora of 1969? The background of science, explanations? The scientific communication? The influence of the aurora?

6.1969 and the crash, the fire, Frank and his work, his heroism? His escape? His relationship with Julia? With John? Frank as the ordinary type, in action? The factory fire and the rescue? The credibility about the girls? Frank as a husband, the Elvis dance? As a father, the bike, the stories, ball, Little Chief? A genial character? Julia and her strength, her work as a nurse, her love?

7.John as a boy, his friendship with Gordo? Friendly, his relationship with his father, the bike, crying, six years?

8.John and 1999, grown up, his work, police work? His relationship with Samantha? Her leaving? His fault? His work, Gordo and the past? Yahoo and searching?

9.The radio, the frequency, the mystery of finding his father? Communicating with him, the possibility of saving his father? Changing the course of history?

10.The killer, 1969 and the murders? Discovering the body? 1999, the role of the murderer? The changed family situation, the threat to John’s mother? Saving her? The information coming from 1969?

11.The happy resolution, for John, the power of the communication between father and son on the radio, the love in their storytelling, the shared experiences of baseball? John’s advice after saving his father’s life? The quality of love and care in the family, each parent with John, his seeing their dance, the bike lessons, playing ball? Frank as a loving role model of father?

12.The theme of what if …? If we’re able to change our lives, how would we relate to our parents?