I saw Frequency.
The plot is actually pretty good, better than I would have expected from the reviews. A depressed cop tools around on his dad's old ham radio, the night before the 30th anniversary of dad's death in the line of duty, rescuing a victim from a warehouse fire. Lo, a miracle occurs, and he is suddenly speaking to his father, 30 years earlier. He takes the chance to warn him, and the father (primed by the unknown radio correspondent's uncanny knowledge of a World Series game that hadn't yet happened) takes the advice and lives. This causes a massive disruption in the space-time continuum, or something like that, and all of a sudden the cop's father didn't die--but his mother has disappeared from his life. The story moves easily between two rapidly morphing timelines as father and son work together to repair the damage they created.
On the plus side, Quaid is excellent, and I just love seeing him back up to form. Andre Braugher, and Noah Emmerich also deliver. The kid playing Emmerich as a 7 year old has a chance for a big laugh, and he comes through like a champ. Elizabeth Mitchell is a new face, playing the wife and mother, and she and Quaid have a nice chemistry; the fact that she was a working mom with a supportive hubbie might have been wishful thinking, but I still enjoyed it. The time line aspects were handled remarkably well, given that it wasn't intended to be a geeky sci-fi movie. More follow-through than I expected. The police procedurals were well-handled--these days, movies rarely make it up to TV standards. But never once did I think, "Oh, man, this would never have worked on NYPD Blue." (Hoblit, the director, directed on NYPD Blue).
And this may sound odd to mention, but the aging makeup was the best I've ever seen.
Just one critical failure: Jim Cavaziel, in the lead. I think in general I just don't like the guy. But more specifically, the screenplay (written by Toby Emmerich, Noah's brother) screwed up in creating a lead character whose life was ruined by the death of his father. A more gloomy mope it would be hard to find. I think it would have been wiser to create a lead who had a good life, a person his father would have been proud of. Alternately, the lead could have been cynical and remote, but not really connecting his detachment to his father's death.
Instead, we get a sourpuss who never got over his father's death and lo! he gets just what he always wanted--a conversation with Dad. This was just a bit too pat for me. It might have worked better with an actor who didn't make me want to smack him for being such a whiner.
As a result, the movie didn't have the emotional resonance I expected--and that it clearly intends to deliver. It might play differently to folks who have lost a parent--on the other hand, it might offend those people mightily, for reasons I won't go into. It certainly does not have anything approaching the pure catharsis of The Sixth Sense.
So I was disappointed. It's not a bad movie at all; but I expected more from it.
