★★★ | Frequencies
This quirky and ingenious British film shows us a slightly dystopian future, where we are all born with a frequency that predetermines our future, our luck and affects our relationships.
It follows Marie-Curie Fortune (aka Marie) and Issac-Newton Midgeley (aka Zak) as they grow, knowing their respective frequencies and how it will affect their lives, expect they seem to be continually thrown together as Marie tries to understand how they can only spend one minute together at a time, without some catastrophe happening.
Think magnets, and how they repel and attract and you have an idea of how this film works – until it throws something else in the mix. The power of words and sound waves to alter this effect – certain words being able to raise or lower a persons frequency and enable two opposites to get close to each other.
The film then goes on to look at how this power has existed since time immemorial and has been forgotten by the vast majority of the population…and there are darker ways in which to use this power.
But music can provide a “reset” and counter-act the effects of the sound waves – whether used for good or evil!
The film is lovely, it doesn’t go for the silver foil suits of other low budget sci-fi. Instead it places itself in the near future or possibly a parallel earth, leaving you a feeling of familiarity with the sets and clothes – and no doubt saving much needed cash.
This gem is written, directed and produced by Darren Paul Fisher, who has had a hand in the In-betweeners and he does a mean turn here – playing with the ideas of words and sound waves leading to mind control but music being a reset on a button based in the soul.
The grown up Marie and Zak are played well by Daniel Fraser and Eleanor Wyld, but the child and teen characters put in excellent turns.
Overall, it can come off a little like a well-meaning episode of Doctor Who, but I for one don’t think that’s such a bad thing.
