Frequency Review
by "Rose 'Bams' Cooper" (bams AT 3blackchicks DOT com)April 17th, 2000
'3 Black Chicks Review...'
FREQUENCY (2000)
Rated PG-13; running time 124 minutes
Genre: Drama/Sci-fi
IMDB site: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0186151
Official site: http://www.frequencymovie.com/
Written by: Toby Emmerich
Directed by: Gregory Hoblit
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Jim Caviezel, Elizabeth Mitchell, Andre Braugher, Noah Emmerich, Shawn Doyle, Daniel Henson, Stephen Joffe, Michael Cera
Review Copyright Rose Cooper, 2000
Review URL: http://www.3blackchicks.com/bamsfrequency.html
Some movies are easy to pick or pan; their brightly shining goodness (KEEPING THE FAITH) or dull, throbbing badness (WHERE THE MONEY IS) make it easy for me as a movie critic to greenlight those that I'd recommend my readers rush out to see, or redlight those that should be taken out with the day's garbage.
And then there are flicks like FREQUENCY; movies that have Issues that prevent me from giving them an unqualified greenlight, but that I still liked well enough to not apply the slow-your-roll brakes on for a yellowlight rating. These are the movies, indeed, that make writing my reviews all the more hard. Thus, I'm writing this on Sunday afternoon instead of last night after I came back from the theater, which allowed me to sleep on it.
But enough of this filler; on with the show.
The Story (WARNING: **spoilers contained below**):
The pretty lights in the sky--the storm known as the aurora borealis--have a surprise in store John Sullivan (Jim Caviezel), a Queens cop who still mourns the death of his father Frank (Dennis Quaid) 30 years past. As the movie opens, John, his best friend Gordo (Noah Emmerich), and Gordo's son Gordy Jr. (Michael Cera) discover a chest belonging to Frank, a firefighter during 1969; the chest contains a shotgun, pictures of his father--and a ham radio ("so this is what people used before the net, huh?") that will link him to his father in ways he never believed could happen.
The radio allows John to reach out to his past and change it, affecting the lives of not only he and his father, but also of his mother Julia (Elizabeth Mitchell), the young Gordo of his past (Stephen Joffe), John's current boss and his father's best friend, Satch DeLeon (Andre Braugher), and even John himself as a young boy (Daniel Henson). But changes made in the past have a direct effect on the future--John's present time--and because of these changes, a serial killer may have been allowed another chance to kill again.
The Upshot:
Issues, Issues, everywhere...
Issue #1: the movie's treatment of the concept of time travel, through what writer Toby Emmerich (brother of Noah, who plays Gordo) calls "multiverses". If you can't get past this concept and suspend your disbelief from the start, you will likely not be able to enjoy this flick. I got past it, though I still have questions about how "multiverses" effect some parts of the character's lives, but not others. For instance, in a scene shown in the movie's trailer **[MINOR SPOILER AHEAD]**, a big deal is made of the 1969 Frank putting his wallet in a common area for the 1999 John to find (immediately, not "in the future". These notes are gonna make me dizzy); similar situations occur throughout the movie. That's all well and good--but if that's the case, why don't other everyday changes to the environment from "now-time" 1969, affect the now of 1999? (Yeah, definitely dizzy). Shouldn't simple things like the 1969 Sullivans taking items in and out of the refrigerator, making the bed, or even going to the bathroom (ugh), leave marks on the 1999 Sullivans' lives? Hmmm... **[END MINOR SPOILER]**
Issue #2: the way director Gregory Hoblit chose to let the viewer know there was some Important! Stuff! about to happen. Hoblit all too often hit the audience the dreaded Whifflebat Of Exposition, by way of using closeups on things that Joe Viewer should pay close attention to, as they would be of great import later on in the story. There's an aurora borealis storm out tonight...wham! And look! at that dead cop's name...wham! And watch...wham!...things drop...wham!...simultaneously... wham!...in slow motion...WHAM-0! But even with that Whifflebat hitting me upside the head as often as it did, I still missed a couple of key sequences that left me wondering what was going on at certain points in the movie. Lucky for me, my husband caught me up afterwards.
Issue #3: Call me picky, but if you're gonna begin with one premise--that using a ham radio requires you to hold down the talk button ("keying") to transmit--you damn well should stick with that premise. I'd rather be asked to believe that you don't key the mike to talk, than to have characters start keying at first, but later have radio conversations from clear across the room with no microphone in sight, much less actually pushing the damn button. Hey, I've walked out on movies for less; I cannot stand having my intelligence insulted, and this singular detail pushed my buttons.
With all those Issues in the way, you might think I didn't like the movie, but actually, I did. Though it wasn't great, it was good enough to keep me interested in what was going on; and the sense of sincerity that came across from the actors--especially Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel--made it convincing, even if it's a bit far-fetched. Given the nature of the parts they're playing, a father and son caught up in what seems like an implausible situation, Quaid and Caviezel go beyond the gimmickry in science fantasy, making the viewer believe that they have genuine affection for one another. It borders on saccharine at times, but the movie rarely suffers for the melodrama inherent in such a tale.
The supporting players, especially Noah Emmerich as the humorous yet never buffoonish Gordo, and Shawn Doyle in a particularly slimy but pivotal role, did well in their parts; and the younger versions of John and Gordo (Daniel Henson and Stephen Joffe) never came off as typical bratty movie kids. The special effects and opening titles were well-done, and the attention paid to story-continuity, except with regards to one character (noted below), was noteworthy. And if nothing else, FREQUENCY succeeds because it does leave the viewer pondering the question at its base: "What if...?"
The "Black Factor" [ObDisclaimer: We Are Not A Monolith]: Issue #4: One of the best actors you've Never Seen--Andre Braugher as Satch DeLeon cum "Frank Pembleton".
Three side issues regarding Braugher, actually: one, his was the only character that did not age well. Given that there were 30 years between the time that he knew both Sullivan men, Satch should have looked a lot older than he did in his scenes with Caviezel. Most of the other characters aged correctly, but except for a few bags under his eyes and a gray hair or two, there was hardly any noticeable change in Satch. It bothered me that I had to be reminded of last week's Rules Of Engagement when watching this movie; on both movie sets, whoever dropped the ball in Makeup, needed to be whupped.
Two, the bizarre decision to cast Braugher as a cop here; after watching him work magic in "The Box" as Detective Pembleton on NBC-TV's HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET, it was extremely disconcerting to see his character placed in much the same situation--and even dressed the same way, complete with Pembleton-like suspenders. It was downright rude that, in this similar role, he had to address someone else as "Frank"--his character's name on the TV show. And it was a criminal act when one interrogation scene with Satch and John bore shades of Frank and the execrable Falsone from "Homicide". It felt like I was having a bad LSD flashback--and I've never touched the stuff.
And three, you've "never seen" this actor play to his full potential, unless like me you've seen him in "Homicide", or in the Spike Lee Joint, GET ON THE BUS. More's the pity--because Braugher's one baaad mutha [shut yo' mouth], when he's allowed to cut loose. Forget the conditional "Black"; he's one of the best actors out there, period. Here's to Braugher, being Seen.
Bammer's Bottom Line:
FREQUENCY had lots of plot holes, and some things that made my eyes roll; and casting Andre Braugher in a very Frank Pembleton-like role, was unnecessarily confusing as far as this former "Homicide" viewer is concerned. But it was interesting enough to have my husband and I discuss it for almost an hour after we saw it, so I'm giving it a qualified greenlight. Not great, and the science (fiction) is iffy, but the special effects were very well done, and the audience was cheering and crying in all the right spots. It's certainly worth a look-see.
FREQUENCY (rating: greenlight):
But stop me before I say something corny like "received transmission loud and clear".
3 Black Chicks...Movie Reviews With Flava! /~\
Rose "Bams" Cooper /','\ 3BlackChicks Enterprises /','`'\ Copyright Rose Cooper, 2000 /',',','/`, EMAIL: [email protected] ICQ: 7760005 `~-._'c / http://www.3blackchicks.com/ `\ ( http://www.evenbetter.com/?partner=1987 /====\
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