I must have missed something when watching this film, because I am a bit surprised by the number of people that seem to have outright enjoyed much of this film. I must admit, that there were some enjoyable aspects of "Frequency" but overall the film makers were so desperate to get the audience to cry (or have the sensation of sentimentality) that they submitted to some bad cliche's of film making.
There are many who like to separate the film as art from film as entertainment, but I believe that is difficult in this case, because there were too many parts where the director used "artsy" film making tactics to get his message across. The OVERuse of slow motion and repeated shots from different angles was an example of pretentiousness at it's worst. I couldn't help but roll my eyes on several occasions, especially during some of the dialog between the father and the son. The writing, at times, was very poor. It just seemed as though the film makers were trying too hard.
I have even enjoyed some "sentimental" type films of the past few years ("Shawshank Redemption," "Good Will Hunting," "Life is Beautiful") but this movie was lacking the skill that those film makers possess. There was also the problem of once you lose the audience here, that we start to notice other intricacies, such as the problems with "time travel."
I think "Back to the Future" handled the genre much better because normal logic allowed those films to work. In those movies Michael J. Fox's character was himself traveling through time, so the audience could accept when he changed events, and arrived back in time that they would change. (They also provided an explanation) In "Frequency" the logic was terribly flawed. Most of the time when an event in the past changed everything surrounding it changed. But sometimes when something in the past changed, only some things in the future changed. It just didn't make sense, especially the "climactic end" scene, which was ridiculous.
Again, I did think at times the suspense was done well, and I was interested, but overall there were too many flaws for me to recommend it. If you are a "sucker" for movies that are like "Chicken Soup For the Soul" then you might like it, but if you are knowledgeable in film and a cynic....beware.
There are many who like to separate the film as art from film as entertainment, but I believe that is difficult in this case, because there were too many parts where the director used "artsy" film making tactics to get his message across. The OVERuse of slow motion and repeated shots from different angles was an example of pretentiousness at it's worst. I couldn't help but roll my eyes on several occasions, especially during some of the dialog between the father and the son. The writing, at times, was very poor. It just seemed as though the film makers were trying too hard.
I have even enjoyed some "sentimental" type films of the past few years ("Shawshank Redemption," "Good Will Hunting," "Life is Beautiful") but this movie was lacking the skill that those film makers possess. There was also the problem of once you lose the audience here, that we start to notice other intricacies, such as the problems with "time travel."
I think "Back to the Future" handled the genre much better because normal logic allowed those films to work. In those movies Michael J. Fox's character was himself traveling through time, so the audience could accept when he changed events, and arrived back in time that they would change. (They also provided an explanation) In "Frequency" the logic was terribly flawed. Most of the time when an event in the past changed everything surrounding it changed. But sometimes when something in the past changed, only some things in the future changed. It just didn't make sense, especially the "climactic end" scene, which was ridiculous.
Again, I did think at times the suspense was done well, and I was interested, but overall there were too many flaws for me to recommend it. If you are a "sucker" for movies that are like "Chicken Soup For the Soul" then you might like it, but if you are knowledgeable in film and a cynic....beware.