Transit

I should begin by saying that I am prejudiced in favor of time travel stories, even if, as in the case of Frequency, it is only radio waves doing the time traveling. However, I was more than usually pleased with the way Frequency came together overall.

When I first saw the previews, I was intrigued, but at the same time, I was skeptical that the premise being presented would make a good full length movie. It would have been a nice half hour Twilight Zone episode, but I would initially have thought that it would drag if it were even made into a one hour TV special. Yet I was pleasantly surprised to find unusual depth and reflection. Father and son Frank and John Sullivan gain the unexpected boon of being able to twist the flow of history to their mutual favor, but in doing so learn that it isn't as simple as it at first appeared and the consequences are suitably more involved that either could have foreseen. The complications that arise are well quite well put together, and the ending, I felt, came together in a satisfyingly neat climax.

Frequency manages to have enough depth to make it worth sitting through a feature length film without becoming so absurdly convoluted that you need a PhD to understand the plot; that is a rare combination that makes it a winner well worth seeing.

Horror? Well, no. Not really. Final Destination manages to be horrifying only in a scene or two throughout its plot, though it is scary in its own way. The obsessive use of symbols and references to death would actually have been clever if it wasn't used somewhat heavy handedly at points. Some of the character relationships just don't make sense, and could have used more background to develop them. And the whole deal about the FBI trying to pin the death of his friends on the protagonist, who is convinced he's found "death's pattern" and is working to beat it just never quite worked for me, which is just as well, since it would have been too predictable anyway.

I did like the overall concept, though. Don't get me wrong on that. So often to we hear and use the term "cheating death" that it is refreshing to see death doesn't always take it lying down. <g> And by eschewing the temptation to make death a personified figure and instead using wild, chaotic forces in the world around us as the agents of death's plan, Final Destination managed to be scarier than a typical slasher style movie would have ever managed. In fact, if only I had felt more for the characters, and understood better their relationships, I might actually have loved this movie.

As it is, I am eagerly looking forward to some future film making genius remaking it someday.