DVD for the Weekend -- "Frequency"

All this recent flutter of talk about "Twilight" and sickly-sweet schoolgirl infatuations has made me slightly ill. Any sensible person will tell you that romantic love isn't the only kind of love worth having. Somewhere in all this, the idea of family has been lost or forgotten. (UPDATE: The love of friends is also essential, even if I didn't explicitly say so previously. Sorry for any confusion. Anyway, friends are, in many ways, the family that you choose for yourself.)

I'm tired of squealing "Twilight"-mania. I need an alternative. So I give you a DVD movie recommendation for the upcoming holiday: the 2000 film "Frequency," starring Jim Caviezel and Dennis Quaid.

Underrated and underappreciated, it's both time-twisting science-fiction crime drama and a character-driven ode to the love of a family, especially the enduring, persevering, and devoted love of a father and son. I still can't hear the word "Chief" without getting all sappy - and I'm not a sentimental person. The ending of the film chokes me up every single time.

There's some wish fulfillment fantasy in the film too, no doubt -- but the drive here is for a family reunited and made whole. More, the way for that to happen is for father and son to work together and make it happen. This isn't only fantasy; this is also a more realistic look at the work and effort that goes into a family -- and it's also an inspiration to appreciate that and roll up your sleeves and work on that. In all honesty, little romantic dreams are fun and everything, but the dream and hope of a loving family is something so fundamental that it aches.

Note too that protagonists of the film are a firefighter and a police officer -- everyday heroes who do the hard and often dangerous work of serving others. The film's special effects are minimal; what really drives the action are the characters.

(By the way, when you're done with "Frequency," you can go on to watch "Supernatural" with an eye to the family theme, especially the devotion between the two brothers.)

The Garth Brooks song from "Frequency" isn't too shabby either if you listen to the lyrics: