Frequency (2000)

Idea: When his best friend, Gordo (Noah Emmerich), drags out his father's (Dennis Quaid) old radio equipment, John Sullivan (Jim Caviezel) discovers that he can communicate with his dead father 30 years in the past.

Two things that need immediate mention: 1) Yay for another great movie from the year 2000. I really feel like that year did me proud. 2) Another of April's top five tear-jerkers. However, this does not mean that you will cry. You see, I am particularly susceptible to father/son relationships and when they say "I love you" to each other. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the fact that you aren't really allowed to do such things in my family.

Of course, as anyone interested in time travel/time interference can tell you, if you change one thing, you change everything. The movie centres around this idea (e.g. tagline: What if?), and it does it really well. I am awed by the bond Caviezel and Quaid build based solely on their voices vs. screen time. It's magical. And it takes talent to get us emotional invested in that kind of relationship.

Mystery/dramas seem to be Gregory Hoblit's (director) bread-and-butter (e.g. Fallen, Hart's War). I was about to say that he knows a thing or two about tension, but I realized that I talk about a director's ability to build tension a lot. Well, it's really important, okay? Or I watch a lot of tense movies. I guess this would be a good time to subscribe to uses and gratifications theory and say that I use their tension to release mine own. Whatever. Hoblit does tension well in a tense movie.

Some strange twists in Toby Emmerich's plot, and Hoblit handles them well. He's not the best ever, but he does a pretty good job. Actually, this is the only thing Emmerich has ever written. Bully for him.

Okay, I must take a moment to mention the music. First of all, I love the original song Garth Brooks did for this movie, "When you come back to me again". Yes, I love a Garth Brooks song. Also, Michael Kamen (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves) composed the score with some additional music from J. Peter Robinson. This little fact makes me very happy as I love Kamen! It is a very sad thing, indeed, that he died last year. Now we'll have to listen to John Williams score everything!

Okay, here's the end: do yourself a favour, and see this movie.