THE MOVIE

Jim Caviezel plays John Sullivan, a 36 year old New York police officer from Queens. The date is October 11, 1999, one day before the anniversary of his father’s death. John’s father Frank Sullivan (Dennis Quaid) died on October 12, 1969, 30 years ago while fighting a fire in an abandoned warehouse.

John’s friend Gordo (Noah Emmerich) and his son pay a visit and stumble upon his father’s old ham radio. After they leave, John starts talking to an unidentified man over the radio. He doesn’t realise it initially, but the man is actually his father. Once John realises he is talking to his father, he desperately tries to warn him about the warehouse fire. He hopes that he can save his life and re-write history.

What John doesn’t realise is that when you mess with destiny and the timeline, it can have all sorts of undesirable consequences. John saves his father’s life, but he inadvertently puts another family member at risk. So it becomes a race against time, both Frank and John must work together in their respective timelines to make things right.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

This DVD is presented in 2.35:1 widescreen and is 16:9 enhanced. It’s a clean transfer which is relatively free of grain and it’s nice and sharp, unfortunately there is a degree of aliasing in this transfer. Colours are rich and vibrant, you only have to look at the red fire engines in chapter 8, there are also some brilliant greens and blues in the aurora borealis.

The layer change occurs in chapter 8, approximately 35 minutes into the film, it is quite noticeable and I personally found it slightly disruptive to the flow of the movie because the music pauses. I must say I was surprised by it’s position in the film, it’s well before the midpoint of the movie, I’ve not seen one this close to the start of a movie before. There are some subtle but really nice CGI effects in this film including the aurora borealis. I’ve never seen it for real, but it looks just like I imagine it would, although the fireball from the manhole in the first fire fighting scene (chapter 1) looks a bit dodgy.

Audio:

As per normal, this Roadshow DVD has three soundtracks on this DVD. A Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, a Dolby 2.0 Surround soundtrack and a director’s audio commentary. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack has its moments. There are some scenes which almost qualify as demo material on this DVD. Namely, the fire fighting scenes in chapter 1 and 8 which are rich in surround effects and have plenty of bass. Surround effects are audible throughout the movie and range from background abient noise to very noticeable explosions.

I never realised the aurora borealis came complete with sound effects though, I always thought it was strictly a visual phenomenon. Obviously the filmmakers have used a generous helping of poetic license. It sounds good though, so I’m not complaining. Anyway, I’m getting sidetracked. Separation is good, although dialogue is sometimes a little hard to hear. I guess it doesn’t help that the soundtrack is reasonably loud during the action scenes. For the most part it’s not a problem but I was tempted to turn on the subtitles during a couple of scenes to double check what the actors were saying. There were no audio synch problems on this DVD.

THE EXTRAS

This DVD has really nice menus. There’s a short introductory animation followed by an animated main menu with looped audio. It is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. The scene selection menu is also animated.

Theatrical trailer
An American promotional trailer for the movie which starts out quite slowly but really gets going in the end. I watched it before the movie and it had me intrigued, wanting to find out more. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. It runs for 2 and a half minutes.

Deleted scenes
Loads a submenu where you can choose from four deleted scenes including John talks to Gordo (2.15 minutes), Frank and Julia Kiss (1.21 minutes), Toby Emmerich Cameo (30 seconds), Frank and Shepard’s Confrontation (1.23 minutes). All scenes have visual quality comparable to the movie itself and are presented in 2.35:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound.

Documentary – The Science and Technology Behind Frequency
A very interesting documentary / featurette which firstly deals with solar science. Scientists such as Dr Don Hassler from the Southwest Research Institute and Dr Sten Odenwald from Nasa talk about solar winds and sunspots, and their affect on earths magnetic fields. They explain the visual phenomenon known as the aurora borealis. The documentary also has segments on Ham radios, time travel and fire fighting which feature in the movie. There is also behind the scenes footage as well as interviews with writer Toby Emmerich, visual effects supervisor Bill Westenhofer and actors Jim Caviezel and Dennis Quaid. It runs for 37 minutes, and is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen (movie excerpts are in 2.35:1) with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound.

Conceptual and Solar Galleries
Let’s you view the introductory CGI sequence of the movie in four discrete stages. There’s a rough 3D animation, then the same animation with lighting, complex animation and the final film. There is also the option to view all four combined and switch between the different stages using the multiple angle feature on your remote control. Total viewing time is about 4 minutes.

Cast and Crew
Biographies and filmographies (3 to 8 pages depending on the actor) for the main actors in this movie including Dennis Quaid, Elizabeth Mitchell, Andre Braugher, Jim Caviezel, Noah Emmerich and director Gregory Hoblit.

Director’s Commentary
The audio commentary features director Gregory Hoblit. It’s an okay commentary with some interesting points raised, although Hoblit tends to ramble on a bit and gets sidetracked, talking about one issue for far too long. He seems to miss parts of the film which you’d think would warrant further explanation. There are also many prolonged silences.

SUMMARY

Frequency is a very worthwhile movie. It’s hard to put it into any specific genre though. It’s part drama, thriller, science fiction, and even fantasy. The story takes place in two different timelines and you’d think there’d be potential for an overly confusing plot, but it works really well. What’s more, this DVD comes with some great extra features, including a very interesting half hour documentary.