‘Frequency’ is cinematic comfort food

[And now for something completely different… Wisejack Cooking was a food website geared to men which featured straightforward recipes from widely known and upcoming chefs. In my column Dinner and a Movie, I provided the movie recommendation that paired well with the highlighted weekly recipe. Usually wry and tongue in cheek, occasionally more thoughtful, the columns  provided a dash of spice fitting with the playful tone of the site. Bon appetit.]

We’re all addicts to some extent or another; we just have different drugs.

It could be anything, from actual pharmaceuticals to shopping to running. Any substance or activity that brings about an altered state of mind, evokes emotion and activates the pleasure areas of the brain, that you crave, fits under the umbrella.

Being a writer artist guy, I have more than my share of vices. I’m so thankful that Wisejack Cooking didn’t bother to do a background check. (Ha! I slip through the cracks once again!)

This week’s recipes are all comfort foods. Comfort food is really about using food as a drug to consciously bring about a soothed, happy, satiated state of mind.

Comfort food is savory flavors, braised fatty meats, fried chicken, hearty stews, mashed potatoes and gravy. It’s spaghetti and meatballs and shepherd’s pie. It’s food that satisfies in exactly the same way a salad can’t. It’s homecooking as well as cooking that just reminds you of home.

Many of us have comfort movies – films that we love and can watch over and over. Mine is “Jaws.” Whenever I see Brody and Hooper and Quint, it’s like hanging out with old friends. Actually, it’s better than hanging out with old friends because Brody and Hooper and Quint will never make you watch their wedding videos in their entirety or ask you to bail them out of a Thai prison.

This week I’m recommending you serve up “Frequency” to go along with your comfort food. This Dennis Quaid thriller is an old-fashioned crowd-pleaser that will keep you on the edge of your seat, yet has a heart a mile wide.

“Frequency” is a film for all of us who’ve dreamed about changing the past, who’ve lost someone dear, who’ve yearned to be able to reach out into the great beyond. From the slightest sci-fi seed sprouts a very human drama:

One day before the 30th anniversary of his father's death – in the midst of a spectacular, nocturnal cosmic fireworks display caused by a flare up of sunspots –  John Sullivan (Jim Caviezel ) discovers his father's old ham radio and begins to tinker with it. Through the electrical static, he finds himself talking to Frank (Dennis Quaid), his own father living in the very same house three decades in the past. Doubt and disbelief quickly turn to awe and wonder. John glows as he finds the common ground with a dad he never really knew; Frank beams with the pride only a father can know.

John gives Frank the details he needs to prevent the firefighting accident that killed him in 1969. However, it’s a change that alters history. John’s mother, and a string of other women, fall victim to a serial killer. And now, it’s up to a young cop in 1999 and his firefighter dad in 1969 to work together to solve the crimes.

With so many universal themes explored and a “Twilight Zone-ish” supernatural vehicle that somehow never feels contrived, “Frequency” will leave you bubbling and warm inside like homemade apple pie straight out of the oven.

The inventive film effortlessly and comfortably weaves back and forth between decades. And despite a couple question marks about the fluidity of time and last-minute turns to the formulaic, it’s the story of the love between a boy and his dad that makes “Frequency” such a magical movie experience. Get a date or grab your family; this is one film that will remind you just how powerful, moving, and entertaining the medium can be.

Emmy award-winning veteran director Gregory Hoblit steers “Frequency” with a sure hand. He’s content to let the first half of the film play out slowly as we appreciate the characters and the magical moments they’re experiencing. The scenes in which father and son bridge the 30 years that separate them and form an ineffable bond will light up your heart.

Then, just when we start wondering where else the story can go, Hoblit spins the tale into parallel thrillers in separate but related timelines.

Partially set in New York during the ’69 World Series, “Frequency” has its fair share of time-travel setups and payoffs and a number of storytelling elements right out of “Back to the Future,” but they somehow seem more affectionately reminiscent rather than blatantly copied. The film’s most notable shortcomings, though, are its breakneck-paced third act – which seems almost an injustice – and shallow development of its secondary characters.

However, it’s all very minor and easy to dismiss. Hoblit’s hooked us from the start and we’ll follow him wherever he takes us. And his concept of parallel times – which sets “Frequency” apart from other time-travel adventures  – will have you talking long after the movie’s closing credits.

Jim Caviezel and Dennis Quaid are perfect. Their radio conversations are so natural they make it seem like they’re talking face to face, yet the two stars never actually appear on camera until the picture’s end. And while films with dual protagonists can leave you feeling emotionally torn, “Frequency” allows the characters to share the hero duties equally well. (Quaid’s only misstep here is his “New Yawk" accent. While it may play well in El Paso or Billings, it’s over exaggerated and often hard to ignore on this side of the Mississippi.)

In the end, “Frequency” is a story about the love between a father and his son. About the integrity and fight for justice that binds them. About a miracle in 1969 that had nothing to do with baseball and everything to do with reuniting a family. It’s comfort food for the heart. Watch it.

Client: Wisejack Cooking