Originally I thought of this movie as a cheap, easily predictable science fiction movie with a plot that made absolutely no sense. After seeing the first couple trailers for it, I had no inclination whatsoever to go see this movie. Then along comes a boring Saturday and having already seen Gladiator, I think, what the heck, I'll see Frequency, it's been getting good reviews - what's to lose? Well, I didn't really lose 2 hours of my time, but the 2 hours weren't put to the best use by seeing Frequency. With a plot resembling a made-for-TV drama on maybe the Sci-Fi channel or USA, the movie really didn't have a chance from the beginning.

The plot seems simple, by intercepting radio waves off the "mother sunspot of all time," New York cop John Sullivan (James Caviezel) is able to reach back 30 years into the past to talk with his father Frank Sullivan (Dennis Quaid) who just happens to be listening on his radio on this exact day. It just so happens that the next day in Frank's life is when he supposedly dies. John lets him in on this and the next day, his father doesn't die, but rather is able to stay around and talk more with John. Unfortunately, because he was able to avert death, the rest of the past/future changes. It seems now as if his mother (a nurse) has fallen to the hand of a serial killer dubbed the Nightengale Murderer. Now detective John and firefighter Frank have to team up to change the past and keep his mother from being killed.

While this is just part of the story - it branches off in all directions from there with subplots involving both Frank and John - the main gist of the story is contrived and unrealistic. Yes, I know this is science-fiction and anything 'technically' could happen, but unfortunately, with no one even to back this claim of the 'mother sunspot' up with any scientific data, the story falls apart. Yes, I know that if they would have tried to incorporate a definition of how this was achieved it would be boring and time consuming, but it just needed to be there. Briefly, during the movie, we catch a scientist on CNN trying to explain how these sunspots work and the supposed 11 different dimensions (of which more than one could be a time dimension), but the scientific explanation is brushed away and we aren't even able to hear more then 20 seconds of this explanation.

Frequency does have its fair share of good parts, but most of them are easy to see coming and extremely cliched. While Frequency does provide ample entertainment throughout (on top of the fact I didn't expect much), it just wasn't able to come together to form a cohesive bond with any scientifc proof. Maybe Frequency deserved to be made, but the problem is, it just didn't belong on the big screen.

Genres: Action, Thriller, Drama
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 117 minutes
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