"Back to the Future" meets "Silence of the Lambs"

Imbued with an excellent premise--what if a grown son could communicate via a ham radio with his deceased father when pops was alive 30 years earlier--"Frequency" takes on the time travel subgenre by starting out as a wistful wish-fulfilment flick and morphing into an action thriller. Here's what our CineVerse group concluded about the movie:

“FREQUENCY”, LIKE OTHER TIME TRAVEL SCIENCE-FICTION MOVIES, CAN SOMETIMES MAKE LEAPS OF LOGIC, LEAVE GAPING PLOT HOLES, AND PRESENT CONFUSING NOTIONS ABOUT TIME, SPACE, AND SCIENCE. CAN YOU PROVIDE EXAMPLES?

·         As Roger Ebert suggests: “At one point both the father and the son are fighting the same man at points 30 years separated, and when the father shoots off the 1969 man's hand, it disappears from the 1999 version of the man. But then the 1999 man would remember how he lost the hand, right? And therefore would know.”

·         Another Ebert observation: “Consider a scene where the father uses a soldering iron to burn into a desk the message: I'm still here, Chief. His son sees the letters literally appearing in 1999 as they are written in 1969. How can this be? If they were written in 1969, wouldn't they have already been on the desk for 30 years?”

·         There’s a time warp of sorts that occurs that bridges two events 30 years apart to the day, both involving a ham radio and the Aurora Borealis.

·         John says he has “new memories” of his father dying and living, but yet he can’t remember the serial killer murdering 10 victims or his mom dying.

·         Also, the butterfly effect would have certainly changed things enough to affect the outcome of the 1969 World Series, wouldn’t it?

“FREQUENCY” HAS BEEN DESCRIBED AS A “WISH-FULFILMENT MALE FANTASY” MOVIE. IF YOU AGREE, WHAT STORY ELEMENTS MAKE IT SO?

·         The desire to reconnect with dead loved ones, especially fathers who have passed away

·         The dream of traveling backward or forward in time

·         The chance to undo our mistakes and change the direction of our lives

·         The opportunity to save a loved one’s life and/or become a hero

·         Our yearning to conquer time and cheat death

·         It’s a very wistful, feel-good, sentimental kind of story that’s hard to overly criticize because it tugs on the heartstrings and is imbued with much passion and feeling.

·         It combines several genres particularly appealing to men: thriller, mystery, police procedural, and fantasy

WHAT MAJOR THEMES ARE EXPLORED IN THIS PICTURE?

·         The notion that love conquers time, space, hate and evil

·         A united family bonded by love is the key to happiness

·         The sins of the father are visited upon the son

·          Breaking with tradition doesn’t have to be a bad thing (the fact that the son becomes a cop despite the fact that his ancestors were firefighters)

·         Good communication can bridge all boundaries and distances and heal wounds

WHAT MOVIES ARE SIMILAR TO “FREQUENCY”?

·         The “Back to the Future” films

·         Field of Dreams

·         The Sixth Sense

·         Jack Frost

·         Ghost

·         Zodiac

·         Contact

·         It’s a Wonderful Life

·         The Time Traveler

·         White Noise

OTHER FILMS DIRECTED BY GREGORY HOBLIT

·         Hart’s War

·         Fracture

·         Untraceable