Abandon (2002)

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 detective battling his own demons, begins investigating Embry's disappearance. Katie is struggling to complete her thesis and land a good job but the sudden reappearance of Embry is throwing a wrench in everything. As her relationship with Wade begins to flourish her own demons come to the surface and soon we realize that Katie is not who we think she is and that Embry's reappearance may have more meaning than we could ever imagine.

`Abandon' plays out like a B-movie, but a very good one at that. It's not as polished as most Hollywood fare; it's gritty and dark, and I think this does the film a huge service (thought I was gonna say `disservice' didn't you). `Abandon' is at moments chilling and this is thanks in large part to Holmes performance. Katie has always had potential but it wasn't until just before she went cuckoo for Tom Cruise that she actually began to tap into it. Her performances in this film as well as 2003's `Pieces of April' are among her finest to date. It's a shame she has thrown it all away.

The rest of the cast does a fine job as well. Benjamin Bratt does his best to stand out but doesn't fare so well. His scenes are smothered with Katie's commanding presence. Zooey Daschanel is funny and witty as Katie's friend Samantha and the beautiful Gabriel Union delivers as Amanda (although I really wish she had more screen time). Melanie Lynskey manages to make me remember her (as she always does) but it's Charlie Hunnam who really grabbed my attention. As the mysterious Embry he really gets under the skin and makes a lasting impression.

Stephen Gaghan's script is tightly woven and, while not exactly mind blowing and or original it manages to strike fresh blood; creeping us out as well as making us think. `Abandon' is surely misunderstood and underappreciated. Don't let the negative press keep you away from this one.

Three Misused Stars
Oh Charlie! You are so great in UNDECLARED and here, in ABANDON, they must have pulled you off the set of UNDECLARED, not even giving you a moment to change your hairdo by a single curl, and wearing the same outfits you wear as the egotistical British roommate in the sitcom, and they ask you to adopt an American accent and play a driven, high modernist composer of all things, so ludicrous. No one who watches the movie believes that Katie Holmes' character could fall for you because you're so pretentious and shallow. And the name of your character--"Embry Larkin"! We have a Larkin Street here in San Francisco... but mostly every time I heard the name Embry I wondered if they call you "Embryo" as a pet name.

And Katie? Why take a part in which your character's name is the same as your own? Is this supposed to be a Robert Altman sort of Pirandello exercise? You're on the screen, looking earnest, and a voice interrupts you saying, "Katie?" And you look up, blush, and say, "Yes"? Is it acting or is it real life?

And watching those scenes now where Katie meets with her understanding, lecherous psychiatrist are just mindblowing now that everyone knows you and Tom are totally against psychiatrists and want to crush them! Katie delivers a "crushing" putdown to Tony Goldwyn, the poor actor playing the psychiatrist, that ties right in with Hubbard's dismissal of psychiatry--was it planned that way? Weren't you still with Chris Klein when you filmed ABANDON? Or was this some sort of psychic pipeline into the future--a future in which the bodies of psychiatrists lie mangled, or dripping blood from lampposts? And Tony Goldwyn of all people! Of course I thought it was "him" was who the killer. Nobody who saw GHOST with Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze could ever fully trust him again. Good casting! Except for you and Charlie. And Benjamin Bratt, you look so bruised and puffy in this film it's like you got out of three rounds with Rocky Marciano and then bobbed up in front of the film cameras--get him a bag of ice to put on his poor face!

So-so mystery!
If this movie was a final exam, it would get about a C-. Try as I might, I just couldn't understand why every man in the movie was infatuated by Katie Holmes. The flashback scenes got really old really fast. The one part of the movie I really enjoyed was the party they went to, they got the college party scene down pat. Rent this movie before you buy, for sure.