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Darren Paul Fisher's quirky sci-fi film FREQUENCIES (2013) does what most sci-fi films these days don't even attempt - it gets its audience to think. The story focuses on an alternate Earth in which people have "frequencies," or bio-chemical vibrations that determine how closely they are in tune with the universe. High frequencies generate luck - meaning the universe seems determined to make things go your way. Low frequencies, on the other hand, pretty much assure you're never in the right place at the right time. The film begins in prep school, where children are being tested to determine their frequency levels. Marie (Lily Laight, Georgina Minter-Brown, Eleanor Wyld) tests super high, so high that she's more machine than human, unable to feel any emotions. Zach (Charlie Rixon, Dylan Llewellyn, Daniel Fraser) tests super low, in fact he's a "negative," which, in this world, means he needs special ed. But Zach is determined to stay in school with Marie, the girl he can't seem to stop thinking about. The problem is, any time Marie and Zach are near each other for more than one minute, the universe is disrupted and strange things happen (like a sudden rainstorm that falls only on Zach, or a passing airliner that drops luggage into their midst). Marie tells Zach that she is incapable of loving him, but he is undaunted. And years later, he finds her again to tell her that he has found a way for them to be together. If he can raise his own frequency and lower hers, they can find balance - and a life together.
While that sounds a lot like a romance with a twist of science fiction, it's really so much more than that. The relationship between Marie and Zach is complex and confusing - he has loved her since they were children, but she has only been intrigued by the odd things that happen when they are near each other. During their school years, she conducts a series of scientific experiments, carefully charting the results of their interactions. But as an adult, she agrees to try Zach's plan to change their frequencies because she longs to feel something, and to experience the world as she sees those around her experiencing it. In a way, she's like Data in "Next Generation," a machine who longs for humanity. And Zach may want something from Marie that she is unable to give, regardless of her frequency. But maybe we're all machines, compilations of particles and energy that act and react but never quite achieve autonomy.
What is most profoundly fascinating about this film is how it plays with physical reality. Zach's plan to override his and Marie's pre-ordained frequencies has to do with patterns and sound and music. Words have power in this world, as do the interconnected notes played by a piano. In one of the film's most memorable scenes, young Zach experiments with the keys on a piano with his friend's father, Strauss (David Broughton-Davies), a musician. Zach tells Strauss that he is incapable of playing music because of his super low frequency, but Strauss pushes him to play any notes he likes, in any order. When Zach does, Strauss is able to transform those notes into real music in a way that's pure magic. By the end of the scene, Zach and Strauss are playing together, merging in a harmony that's both balanced and unique.
And balance is at the heart of this film. On one level, the film is about the physics of love - what it means, how it works, and why we long for it. Zach and Marie are initially drawn to each other because "opposites attract," but those same opposing forces also keep them apart. What Zach strives to do is modulate their frequencies, so that the very things that are different about them become balanced, blending in a way that is uniquely perfect. Love then, in terms of physics, becomes this perfect balance between people, a balance that becomes harmony in the same way music works.
But as the film continues to explore these things, the suggestion is made that love - and all human relationships, actually - may not be ours to choose. Are we manipulated by the very forces we try to control? Do we say "I love you" because we've chosen it, or because it's chosen us? And in the same way that "Vanilla Sky" asks us whether an unreal happiness is preferable to real misery, FREQUENCIES asks us whether true love is worth the loss of free will. It's a complicated question, one without easy answers.
FREQUENCIES will confound you at the same time it delights and intrigues you. And it will make you think about the world around us in ways few films even attempt. This is a film for all the geeks out there who long for sci-fi that's more than space ships, aliens, and big special effects. This is a very small film, with a very low budget, but it's also a film that will touch you in profound and memorable ways. I highly recommend it.
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Top reviews from other countries
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- Call me AlReviewed in the United Kingdom on November 8, 2015
“Serious question or polite conversation?”
- Ben Joe PlayerReviewed in the United Kingdom on August 3, 2015
A very interesting and thoughtful film.
- HarlequinReviewed in the United Kingdom on June 2, 2018
Britain just can't do sci fi
- Richard MortonReviewed in the United Kingdom on July 16, 2015
Intriguing but flawed
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