“Field of Dreams” meets “Back to the Future” best describes “Frequency” thematically. The experience of watching “Frequency” could be replicated by chugging a bottle of corn syrup. To say this film was saccharin would be to undermine the sweetness of sugar.

“Frequency” is a film about a man in 1999, John Sullivan (James Caviezel, “The Thin Red Line”), who finds himself speaking to his dead father, Frank Sullivan (Dennis Quaid, “Dragonheart,” “The Right Stuff”) in 1969. John is presented with the chance to save his fireman father’s life and he takes it. By changing the past he has changed the present. He saves his father at the expense of his mother’s life.

Up until this point, the film is largely a sentimental joy ride of family values. The audience simply delights in a son’s sweet desire to save his father’s life and everything is good and pure.

After this, the film turns into a murder mystery. Who killed John’s mother and how can he and his father stop it? It is compelling and well executed. Right in the middle of sweetness and light, we have this dark, serial killer plot spring up. It takes what was almost a vapid Disney flick and turns it into something more closely resembling “Seven.”

In 1999, John tries to use all of his skills and resources as a cop to identify the killer and feed the information to Frank in the past.

Frank gets the information from his son about where and when the serial killer will strike. In order to save his wife, he puts himself in harm’s way and ends up face to face with the killer who turns the tables on him.

Things get complex for a while, but the past and the present keep changing until the film’s climax.

The acting is great in this film. Quaid is the perfect actor to play Frank Sullivan. For one thing, Quaid can play a variety of ages and attitudes convincingly. He is just as real playing a man in his 30s as he is playing a man nearly twice that age.

Plus, Quaid is just a built-in sentimentality machine himself. He has played so many roles so naturally where the audience just falls in love with him instantly. Him simply walking on screen scores big points.

James Caviezel’s big screen debut in “The Thin Red Line” has virtually guaranteed him a future in film. He was almost too good for this role. He plays the messed up cop so well it is hard to see his softer side.

The plot for “Frequency” was more than a bit contrived. Here we have a father and son talking over a ham radio across 30 years and it doesn’t take much for their characters to believe that what is happening to them is real. That is hokey.

If someone called you and told you they were from the future, it would take some serious convincing, way beyond a couple of sports scores. The only possible explanation given in the film for this phenomena is that the Aurora Borealis is particularly strong in both time periods.

The two men go through every stage of denial just to make it passably realistic for the audience, but they do it so fast as to nearly destroy their own credibility. This seemed only to be necessary to get to the murder mystery portion of the film with as little delay as possible.

“Frequency” was almost two films. The first one a light and fluffy “I love my dad and will toy with the natural order of things to prove it” movie and the second a slightly odd murder mystery. It works, though.

As predictable as “Frequency” is, it is still a good one to watch. You know that somehow things will work out in the end, and even when the plot thickens it doesn’t thicken so much to ever make you really wonder if things will work out.

That is a drawback to people who like to feel real suspense, but for those who like to pretend they are watching suspense, this film is probably just packed to the gills for them.

This is not a film for the ages, in fact, it isn’t even a film that will last in the memories of the public through the summer, but it isn’t a half bad little piece of sentimentality that will keep your attention throughout.

3 Stars

Rating based on a 5 Star scale.

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Greg Jerrett is a graduate student in English from Council Bluffs.