Dennis Quaid's 25-Year-Old Sci-Fi Thriller Is Way Too Good To Be Forgotten

There are Dad Movies that are about capable, up-against-it men overcoming unthinkable obstacles to save the day, and then there are Dad Movies that make you miss your father. The latter type of movies hit a whole lot harder when the pater familias has shuffled off this mortal coil, which is why Major League Baseball holds a "Field of Dreams" game once a year in the carved-out cornfield stadium where the Phil Alden Robinson classic was shot. A lot of people miss their old man. And, frankly, even if you don't have such daddy issues, the emotion expressed in movies about father-son relationships that aren't titled "The Great Santini" can switch on the waterworks through the power of sheer empathy.

If you're making a list of dad movie all-stars, Dennis Quaid should absolutely be in your top 10. "The Long Riders," "The Right Stuff," and "Any Given Sunday" are classics of the form. But if you're looking for Quaid's purest dad movie, his go-to is Gregory Hoblit's somewhat forgotten "Frequency." The fanciful, well-reviewed sci-fi flick was not a hit upon its theatrical release in 2000, but it's become a kind of cult favorite among fans of the male weepie. The narrative doesn't make a lick of sense, even by time travel standards, but you work with it because the hook is too damn good.

I think your best bet is to watch "Frequency," which influenced the K-drama "Signal," knowing as little as possible going in. Still, if you require a little more convincing, please allow me to sell you on this underrated gem.

"Frequency" hits a lot of bases. It's a time travel movie where a father (Quaid) and son (Jim Caviezel) converse with each other over a ham radio due to a flaring aurora borealis. Miscast this movie, and hire the wrong director, and you've got an all-time howler on your hands (which would've been the case for "Field of Dreams" as well). But Hoblit, a skilled TV director ("Hill Street Blues," "NYPD Blue"), who'd successfully made the leap to features with "Primal Fear" (which launched Edward Norton's career) and "Fallen," grounds it all by leaning into the procedural thriller element at the heart of Toby Emmerich's screenplay. Yes, there's a killer on the loose in this genre stew of a movie.

The buy-in is easy. Quaid's firefighter pop was killed in an accident when Caviezel's cop was six; if you aren't tearing up while watching these men get to form a meaningful bond over a ham radio, there's something wrong with your heart. That it doesn't lose its way when it becomes a straight up thriller, with the father-son duo combining over a Northern Lights-enabled bull session to foil a criminal, is rather remarkable.

"Frequency" is not a classic on the level of "Field of Dreams," but it flat-out works if you can let its loopy time travel logic slide. It's the kind of well-crafted studio flick that we don't see much of anymore. That's worth a cry on its own.