Whoever has lost a loved one knows what it is like to have that longing to communicate with them again. To say things that were never said , and correct things uncorrected. You know that much of the pain and suffering can cease once you can hear that loved ones voice again.

John Sullivan, played by Jim Caviezel, is given just that opportunity in Gregory Hoblit’s Frequency. He is able to talk to his father Frank Sullivan, Dennis Quaid, who died 30 years ago. As a firefighter risking his life to rescue a woman from a burning building, Frank pays the ultimate price. Jim is hurting 30 years later, and wishes there is something he could have done.

How the adult Jim and his dead father are able to communicate again is a pretty silly, yet original concept. Because of sunspots and the Northern Lights affecting the radio waves Jim can talk to his father through his fathers old ham radio that has been drug out. The Jim of 1999 is now able to speak to the Frank of 1969.

Although the script does supply a cockeyed idea for crossing the time barrier, it is still very moving when the father and son start communicating. Caviezel and Quaid work well together even though they are not even the same room. Of course Frank does not believe this at first, John convinces his father while telling him the outcome of the 1969 Word Series right as Frank is watching it.

Instead of just using this new found communication to just talk, John decides to change the past. He warns his father of his demise in the fire just days before it occurs. This allows Frank to survive the fire and for the incident to never have happened.

If these characters had ever seen a time travel movie like Back To The Future or The Time Machine they would know that if you mess with the past it’s going to come back and bite you in the butt. Somehow, their actions have caused a serial killer, played by Shawn Doyle, to take an interest in the mother, actress Elizabeth Mitchell. Before he knows it, Jim discovers his mother died in 1969 instead of his father.

A bigger problem is that 30 years later the murders are still unsolved. It is now a race against time for father and son as they try to track down the killer. At this point the film starts to slip into mediocrity.

It is sad to see such a charming movie become a unenvolving murder mystery. Yet, the viewer is still interested to some degree because these are characters that we like and can even relate to on some level.

By the end we have been bombarded with plot holes and unbelievable inconsistencies, but amazingly we are still intrigued. How can this be? Simply put, if a movie has enough heart, it does not matter how many flaws it contains.



Recommended: Yes