April 30, 2000 -- While "Frequency" is arguably a tale of science fiction, it is also arguably a tale of fantasy which invites a very unlikely comparison to none other than, "Field of Dreams."

Like "Field of Dreams," "Frequency" is a story about a father and son, separated by death and by long years. And what connects them? Baseball, that's what. Sound familiar? The whole story is about the relationship between a father and his son, and how the absence ot that relationship for so many years harmed the son in ways he didn't even realize. If the screenwriter, Toby Emmerich (his first), had stuck to that theme, he would have been better off, instead, there's a whole convoluted sub-plot involving a serial killer and lots of violent deaths.

James Caviezel (who was a main character in "The Thin Red Line") stars as police detective John Sullivan. His life is generally falling apart. His wife is leaving him and his dreams of a major league career ended when his shoulder blew out in high school. His father, a firefighter, died in a burning building when he was just a boy. One day he and a friend pull out his father's old ham radio and set it up. There just happens to be a lot of solar flare activity on the sun. We hear a talking head on TV explain that the solar flares could cause some sort of "fluid time" conditions because of superstring theory. As I understand it, superstring theory postulates nine spatial dimensions and one time dimension, so where this fluid time stuff comes from, I don't know. For more on physics superstring theory, see the String Theory home page.

Anyway, we have some king of superstring fluid time stuff going on because there were solar flares in 1969 and in 1999, too. So John hears this voice coming out of his dad's old ham radio in 1999, and it is his dad, talking to him from 30 years ago! His dad, Frank, played by Dennis Quaid of "Any Given Sunday" fame, is due to die the next day in a fire. John warns him about that, saving his life. That changes the future, not all in good ways.

It turns out Frank's wife, who was originally called away from the hospital because of his death, inadvertently saves the life of a serial killer, who goes on to kill an additional seven victims. John persuades Frank that he has to atone for those seven deaths by tracking down the killer. Information and objects are traded back and forth over time. They close in on the killer, but at the same time, the crafty killer is closing in on them.

If this sounds confusing, you haven't heard anything yet, the movie's plot is even more convoluted, as we have characters and the appendages of characters appearing and then disappearing from existence. At one point, Frank sends a message to John by burning it into a table top. The table top is still hot and smoking 30 years later. Not even string theory can explain that. The script writer also missed a great opportunity for the line "man, am I glad you stopped smoking" which John could have delivered with a great effect at one climactic point in the film. Each time he and his father change the course of events, John is the only one who remembers the way things were before he changed the course of events. Sometimes he can't remember the new history he has created as the result of changing past events, and that does not make sense.

The only way Frank has to get anyone to believe that he has talked to someone in the future is his knowledge of future events, and that rests on his son's exhaustive knowledge of the 1969 World Series won by the "amazin' Mets," his favorite team. All of the action takes place during the 1969 World Series. Baseball is what brings them together. It is what brings us all together. It's kind of a baseball movie and I liked that about it. The idea that you can reach into the past and correct past mistakes is also a very appealing one.

James Caviezel and Dennis Quaid carry this movie on the strength of their acting. The only way you can half-way believe a cockeyed story like this one is if the actors sell it, and they sure do. André Braugher (of the TV series "Homicide" where he plays Frank Pembleton) plays police detective Satch DeLeon and Shawn Doyle (who was in the made-for-TV movie "Storm of the Century") plays the killer, Jack Shepard. These two performances are solid. The other supporting roles are also well done. The film is fast paced. In fact, it is probably hyped up with more action than it really needed. It rates a B.

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