Abandon

Much more than you may think...
I remember when I went and saw this for the first time and everyone I was with thought it was terrible. I remember being in shock because I thought it was quite good. Granted, at the time of its release I was in love with Katie Holmes and thought she could do no wrong. Now, years later I decided to watch this again to see if it holds up now that my fascination with Holmes has diminished due to her insanely strange new outlook on life. Well, it does. I don't know what to say to all these people who find this film horrendous. I actually really like it. It works, it's solid and it impresses me to this day. Sure, it's not perfect, but it's so much better than many make it out to be.

The film revolves around Katie Burke, a young college student who is haunted by the memory of her ex-boyfriend Embry. Embry has been out of her life for two years now, just up and disappearing, but suddenly he seems to be returning. This begins to take its toll on Katie when Wade, a police...

Katie Holmes in sub-standard thriller
Katie Holmes is one of those actresses seemingly set for stardom, with those perenially girlish looks and lop sided pout.

However, with this sort of effort on her CV, even with a front page headline marriage, she will soon be doomed to straight to video shelves for the rest of her career. This movie aims for off kilter edgy psycholgical thrills - 'what is really going on' paranoia. But in the end, what it actually achieves is boredom and 'who really cares' apathy.

The story revolves around a colege student preparing for her thesis. She starts having memories surface of her boyfriend, who disappeared strangely 2 years ago, when an ex alcoholic detective is sent to investigate his disappearance. The investigation leads to her seeing the ex boyfriend again. The tension revolves around the uncertainty of whether what she is seeing is real or not.

It's not really a bad movie; the director uses various time dislocation tricks to put the audience off kilter,...

Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here
**1/2 "Abandon" is yet another in a long line of mystery films in which the audience is supposed to be thrown for a loop when it comes time for the filmmakers to unveil their "surprise, turnabout" ending. Only, in this case, most reasonably intelligent filmgoers should be able to spot the outcome miles ahead of the characters.

Katie Holmes stars as Katie Burke, an attractive but overstressed college student who has had serious abandonment issues ever since her father left her when she was a little girl. It turns out that Katie was also dumped by her boyfriend, Embry Larkin, two years ago when he mysteriously vanished from school without a trace. Benjamin Bratt plays Wade Handler, a detective sent to investigate the disappearance who believes that the boy may have met with foul play. Suddenly, Katie starts seeing Embry popping up in various places around campus. Has he returned or is someone playing a cruel and vicious game on the distraught young woman?

"Abandon" provides...

Click to Editorial Reviews