Frequency
USA 2000
Reviewed by Tom Tunney
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
1969. Frank Sullivan, a fireman and ham radio enthusiast, lives with his wife Julia and six-year-old son John in New York.
In the same house 30 years later the adult John, a policeman, sets up his late father's long neglected ham radio. Due to unusual climactic conditions, he is able to contact Frank, sitting in the same room with the same radio 30 years before. John tells his father that he will die the next day in a fire. Forewarned, Frank survives the blaze. But his survival has one unforeseen consequence: the unsolved 1969 case of a local serial murderer - which John is working on - now has 10 victims instead of three, one of whom is John's mother, Julia.
Briefed by John from the 1999 police files, Frank sets out to stop the mystery killer striking again. He saves one would-be victim by talking to her all night. The killer, Jack Shepard, a policeman, realises he is being followed when Frank zeroes in on his next victim. Shepard beats Frank up and steals his driving licence, which he leaves beside his victim's body. Frank becomes the police's prime suspect. John tells him to hide his wallet (which contains the killer's fingerprints) in the house. John retrieves it 30 years on and is able to identify Shepard as the killer.
Back in the 1969, Frank is arrested. After being threatened by Shepard in his cell, Frank escapes, pursued by the killer. Shepard appears to drown during a fight with Frank at the waterfront.
Later, John tells Frank that Julia is still due to be killed by Shepard. As they speak, Shepard appears: as a young man in 1969, he tries to kill Frank; and as an older man in 1999, he tries to kill John. In 1999, an older version of Frank turns up and shoots Shepard dead. Back in 1969, Shepard disintegrates.
In 1999 Frank, John and their family enjoy a game of baseball.
Review
Frequency is the story of a father, a son and a holy ghost. The spiritual dimension of director Gregory Holbit's entertaining, if baffling film takes the form of sunspots in the night sky which allow detective John Sullivan to communicate with his father Frank 30 years ago. This intriguing idea - which sees information rather than people journey though time - sets Frequency apart from other time-travelling movies such as Time after Time (1979) to the Back to the Future series. But like these films, Frequency has its share of sly ironies which play on the audience's knowledge of the course of history: the adult John, for instance, gives his brother 30 years advance notice to invest in e-commerce; while back in 1969 Frank imagines mobile phones to look like "big field radios they have in the army".
But such references to contemporary reality are rare - perhaps an indication of the inherently preposterous nature of Toby Emmerich's screenplay. Despite a commendation from physics professor Brian Greene - who appears in the film, first as a young man in 1969, then 30 years later - it's difficult not to notice certain dramatic flaws in Frequency's speculative narrative logic. As the parallel realities pile up like successive drafts of a developing screenplay - John is able to tamper with the past by forewarning his father of key events - the tension drains from the film: if John is able to change the course of given events - you're left thinking - everything, including the danger posed by serial killer Shepard, is open for revision, for erasure (in his climatic fight with Frank in 1969, Shepard literally disintegrates). For the most part, Holbit distracts us from the manifest absurdities of his plot through taut and pacey direction. Having directed episodes of television's NYPD Blue, he's far better on the mechanics of police procedure than he is on the dizzying implications of his time-travelling scenario. There's also a impressive attention to detail - Frank's cigarette burn on the table, for instance, appears suddenly 30 years later - which suggests Frequency has at least superficially been well thought out.
Ultimately though, for all its multiplying versions of history and its chaos-theory approach to narrative causality, Frequency is more about preserving the past than changing it. Like Back to the Future and Peggy Sue Got Married, Frequency evokes the past as an innocent, more wholesome time. The scenes with Frank might be set in 1969 but there's little indication of the turbulent social change then taking place. First glimpsed in an all-night bar, Shepard, the serial killer with designs on John's mother, is the malevolent threat to the stability of the Shepard family unit. Having blotted Shepard from history, John recaptures the family values of his childhood in the film's final scene - an idyllic multi-generational game of baseball. This may smack of wish fulfilment, but then idea that the scene could be one of many alternative realities is never too far away to upset the tidy sense of closure.
Credits
- Director
- Gregory Hoblit
- Producers
- Hawk Koch
- Gregory Hoblit
- Bill Carraro
- Toby Emmerich
- Screenplay
- Toby Emmerich
- Director of Photography
- Alar Kivilo
- Editor
- David Rosenbloom
- Production Designer
- Paul Eads
- Music/Music Conductor
- Michael Kamen
- ©New Line Productions, Inc.
- Production Company
- New Line Cinema presents a Gregory Hoblit film
- Executive Producers
- Robert Shaye
- Richard Saperstein
- Co-executive Producer
- Janis Chaskin
- Associate Producer
- Patricia Graf
- Executive in Charge of Production
- Carla Fry
- Production Executive
- Erik Holmberg
- Production Supervisor
- David Crockett
- Production Controller
- Paul Prokop
- Production Co-ordinators
- Lori Greenberg
- Supervising:
- Emily Glatter
- NY Unit:
- Kimberly N. Fajen
- Unit Production Managers
- Bill Carraro
- Matthew Hart
- Location Managers
- Fred Kamping
- NY Unit:
- Samuel Hutchins
- Location Unit Manager
- NY Unit:
- Troy Thomas
- Post-production
- Executive in Charge of:
- Jody Levin
- Supervisor:
- Rick Reynolds
- Assistant Directors
- Jeffrey Steven Authors
- Rick Kush
- Darrin Brown
- Janet Zdyb
- NY Unit:
- Rob Albertell
- Gregory G. Hale
- Script Supervisors
- Samantha Armstrong
- NY Unit:
- Linda Haftel
- Casting
- Amanda Mackey Johnson
- Cathy Sandrich
- Toronto:
- Robin D. Cook
- Camera Operators
- Angelo Colavecchia
- Candide Franklyn
- Additional:
- Angel Gonzalez
- Henri Fiks
- John Hobson
- NY Unit:
- Bruce MacCallum
- Wescam Operator
- NY Unit:
- David Norris
- Visual Effects
- Rhythm & Hues Studios
- Special Effects
- Supervisor:
- Martin Malivoire
- Head:
- Kaz Kobielski
- Additional:
- Jason Board
- Gary Kleinsteuber
- Daniel S. Gibson
- Gordin Brothers
- Peter Sissakis
- Arthur Langevin
- NY Unit Co-ordinator:
- Steve Kirshoff
- NY Unit Foreman:
- Wilfred Caban
- NY Unit:
- Carmen M. Campolo Jr
- Fred Kraemer Jr
- Robert J. Scupp
- Graphic Artists
- Steven Csepe
- Nigel Churcher
- Art Directors
- Dennis Davenport
- NY Unit:
- John Kasarda
- Set Designer
- Elis Lam
- Set Decorators
- Gordon Sim
- NY Unit:
- Beth Kushnick
- Key Scenic Artist
- Cameron S. Brooke
- Storyboard Artist
- Ronald Hobbs
- Costume Designers
- Elisabetta Beraldo
- Associate:
- Arthur Rowsell
- Costume Supervisors
- Cori Burchell
- NY Unit:
- Donna M. Maloney
- Barrett P. Hong
- Key Make-up Artist
- Donald J. Mowat
- Make-up Artists
- Edelgard K. Pfluegl
- NY Unit:
- Leslie Fuller
- Michelle Bruno
- Special Make-up Department Head
- John Caglione Jr
- Key Hairstylist
- Jennifer O'Halloran
- Hairstylists
- Janice Miller
- NY Unit:
- Verne Caruso
- Main Title Sequence Design/Production
- Goodspot L.L.C.
- Titles/Opticals
- Pacific Title
- Opening Rescue Sequence Music
- J. Peter Robinson
- Orchestrations
- Michael Kamen
- Robert Elhai
- Brad Warnaar
- Jonathan Sacks
- Blake Neely
- Peter Tomashek
- Music Executive/
- Supervisor
- Paul Broucek
- Score Producers
- Michael Kamen
- Christopher Brooks
- Music Editor
- Tom Kramer
- Music Recording
- Joel Iwataki
- Additional:
- Bobby Fernandez
- Music Mixer
- Stephen McLaughlin
- Sound Design
- Steve Boeddeker
- Sound Mixers
- Douglas Ganton
- NY Unit:
- James J. Sabat
- Recordist
- NY Unit:
- J.J. Sabat
- Re-recording Mixers
- Michael Semanick
- Gary Rizzo
- Gary Summers
- Re-recordist
- Ronald G. Roumas
- Supervising Sound Editor
- Tom Bellfort
- Dialogue Editors
- Claire Graybill
- Lindakay Brown
- Sound Effects Editors
- Teresa Eckton
- Christopher Scarabosio
- ADR
- Recordist:
- Tami Treadwell
- NY Recordist:
- Bobby Johanson
- Mixer:
- Robert Deschaine
- Editor:
- Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
- Foley
- Artists:
- Dennie Thorpe
- Jana Vance
- Mixer:
- Tony Eckert
- Editors:
- Bruce Lacey
- Karen Wilson
- Fire Department Technical Consultant
- Thomas P. Ryan
- NYPD Technical Advisers
- Bill Clark
- Bill Oldham
- Physics Technical Consultant
- Brian Greene
- Stunt Co-ordinators
- G.A. Aguilar
- Canadian:
- Steve Lucescu
- Helicopter Pilot
- Al Cerullo
- Cast
- Dennis Quaid
- Frank Sullivan
- Jim Caviezel
- John Sullivan
- André Braugher
- Satch DeLeon
- Elizabeth Mitchell
- Julia Sullivan
- Noah Emmerich
- Gordo Hersch
- Shawn Doyle
- Jack Shepard
- Jordan Bridges
- Graham Gibson
- Melissa Errico
- Samantha Thomas
- Daniel Henson
- Johnny Sullivan aged 6
- Stephen Joffe
- Gordo Hersch aged 8
- Jack McCormack
- Commander O'Connell
- Peter MacNeill
- Butch Foster
- Michael Cera
- Gordie Jr aged 10
- Marin Hinkle
- Sissy Clark
- Richard Sali
- Chuck Hayes
- Nesbitt Blaisdell
- Fred Shepard
- Joan Heney
- Laura Shepard
- Jessica Meyer
- teenage runaway
- Kirsten Bishopric
- Carrie Reynolds
- Rocco Sisto
- Daryl Adams
- Rosemary DeAngelis
- Mrs Finelli
- Dick Cavett
- Brian Greene
- themselves
- Melissa Fitzgerald
- Linda Hersch
- John DiBenedetto
- Con Ed supervisor
- Terry Serpico
- Brian Smyj
- Con Ed workers
- Nicole Brier
- stoned teenage girl
- Brantley Bush
- young intern
- David Huband
- lounge bartender
- Timothy Brown
- Billy, roof man
- Chuck Margiotta
- Gino, pedestal man
- Karen Glave
- Lanni DeLeon
- Frank McAnulty
- desk sergeant
- Derek Aasland
- stoned man 1
- Jim McAleese
- Cozy bartender
- Catherine Burdon
- young woman 1
- Jennifer Baxter
- young woman 2
- Desmond Campbell
- Hector, forensic tech
- Danny Johnson
- Colm Magner
- uniformed cops
- Brigitte Kingsley
- bar waitress
- Tucker Robin
- Frank Jr
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- Entertainment Film Distributors Ltd
- 10,661 feet
- 118 minutes 28 seconds
- Dolby Digital/DTS/SDDS
- Colour/Prints by
- DeLuxe Films Labs
- Super 35 [2.35:1]