directed by gregory hoblit . screenplay by tobias emmerich . starring dennis quaid , james caviezel , elizabeth mitchell . running time : 121 minutes . rated aa by the mfcb . reviewed on may 4th , 2000 . one of the big problems with many movies about changing history is that they tend to get bogged down in its mechanics . the difficulty is that our modern understanding of time is still incredibly limited , so any such discussion will by its very nature come across as a load of gobbledegook . good movies like " back to the future " ignore the subject altogether , or at most give it a passing acknowledgement . their makers are aware that the fun thing about time isn't how it works , but how it can be used in a dramatic context . " frequency " is such a film , and it proves to be one of the most entertaining movies of the year so far . john sullivan ( james caviezel ) is a cop in 1999 new york . he has just broken up with his girlfriend , drinks a little too much , and is all too aware that it's almost the thirtieth anniversary of the death of his father . frank sullivan ( dennis quaid ) was a firefighter who perished in 1969 rescuing a transient from a warehouse fire . one night , john happens upon his dad's old ham radio , mothballed since frank's demise . for old times' sake , he switches it on . a lot of things were happening in new york around the time of frank's death . the " amazing " mets were on their way to winning the world series against the baltimore orioles . a serial killer murdered four nurses before vanishing without a trace . and the aurora borealis -- the northern lights -- was making a rare week-long appearance in the skies above the city . in 1999 , the northern lights have returned to new york for the first time in three decades . by some freak accident of nature , this allows john to speak to frank in 1969 via the ham radio . john manages to convince his father that he really is communicating from the future by predicting events of the mets/orioles world series , and gives him enough information about the warehouse fire to save his life . but this changes the whole pattern of history , and not all for the good . somehow , frank's survival has meant that the so-called nightingale killer's death toll was ten instead of four -- and one of the " new " victims was john's mother julia ( elizabeth mitchell ) . frank and john must cooperate across the years to stop the murderer in time . " frequency " is not a particularly deep movie . in a way it's about the relationship between fathers and sons , and how profoundly the absence of the former can affect the latter . and of course it deals with the familiar science-fiction notion of how changing one seemingly innocuous event can have major ramifications on things long after . but , in the end , the real point of " frequency " is just to tell a good story , and in this it excels . there are a lot of great scenes in which frank and john's altering of history is explored , not on a pseudoscientific level but on a purely visceral one . the movie doesn't try to justify its temporal mechanics ( indeed , there are some inconsistencies in how frank's actions ripple down to his son ) , but just taps into our sense of the fantastic . for example , at one point frank communicates with john by burning a message into his desk . john sees the letters appear one by one and touches them , expecting to find them hot . but of course they're not , because they were made thirty years earlier . later , frank acquires a wallet with the murderer's fingerprints on it , but can't go to the police in 1969 because they'd never believe his story . so he hides the wallet beneath a loose floorboard , where john retrieves it in 1999 . " wow , " breathes frank , and he is speaking as much for the audience as for himself . while these sorts of things are nothing new to the genre , rarely have they been done so well and with such enthusiasm . and there are a couple of particularly imaginative sequences , especially a visually awesome one at the movie's climax . the only real downside to " frequency " is that the serial killer storyline which dominates its second half is rather pedestrian . this is not to say that it's badly done -- it's intriguing enough in its own way -- but it just doesn't live up to the wonder which permeates the rest of the movie . scenes like one where frank is arrested for being the nightingale killer seem commonplace , for instance , and the proceedings generally feel as though they've been lifted out of an uncommonly bizarre episode of " law and order " . but even this is energised by excellent performances from caviezel and particularly quaid . " frequency " lives or dies on the conviction of their father/son relationship , made more challenging by the fact that their communications aren't face-to-face . but both actors are up to the task , bringing genuine emotion to the story . as a result , it's easy to suspend our disbelief and buy into the movie , and it's hard to suppress a cheer when frank survives the fire , or when father and son team up to stop the killer . director gregory hoblit does a good job , especially in keeping the frequent and potentially dull scenes of frank and john talking on the radio alive and interesting . also , he wisely chooses not to overplay the changes father and son have wrought on the present . although some differences are highlighted , many others are left as subtle background detail . like " back to the future " , this gives the film a richness it would otherwise be lacking . " frequency " has a broad appeal that's rare in movies today . it's a science-fiction movie where the characters come first , where visual effects take a backseat to story and acting , but which is exciting and suspenseful nonetheless . " frequency " probably won't win any academy awards , but it was one of the most enjoyable cinematic experiences i've had in a long time . and , in the end , i can't ask for much more than that . copyright © 2000 shannon patrick sullivan . archived at the popcorn gallery , <a href= " http : //www . physics . mun . ca/~sps/movies/frequency . html " >http : //www . physics . mun . ca/~sps/movies/frequency . html</a> -- _______________________________________________________________________ / shannon patrick sullivan | " we are all in the gutter , but some of us \ | <a href= " mailto : shannon@mun . ca " >shannon@mun . ca</a> | are looking at the stars . 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