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Abandon I thought this might be one of those low hype, surprise movies that bursts on the scene and turns out to be very good. The feeling continued as I watched the first hour of the film, but then the wheels fell off. Katie Holmes stars as Katie (I guess that cuts down on any possible confusion) - a college senior with high marks, lots of friends, a difficult past and great future possibilities. Sadly, two years earlier, her boyfriend Embry (Charlie Hunnam) disappeared without a trace. He was stinking rich, but he has not touched his trust fund nor has he used any credit cards. Embry just disappeared, leading the police to think that he was murdered. His estate has asked the police to conduct another investigation to legally declare him deceased and give all of the money to charity, so Detective Wade Handler (Benjamin Bratt) has been called into action. The investigation takes an interesting turn (at least the audience hopes it's interesting) when Katie thinks Embry may still be alive and stalking her. Is Embry alive? What does he want with Katie? Abandon has great potential and was an interesting film throughout the first hour. However, director/writer Steven Gaghan doesn't know how to get himself out of the film with a satisfying conclusion. The first hour is a good mystery complete with goose bump scenes that will have you on the edge of your seat, but Gaghan doesn't adequately set up the audience for the conclusion. Yeah, I figured it out about half way through, but if it were done better, I would have enjoyed the ending. My other complaint is the lack of Benjamin Bratt action. I believe he is one of the best actors around and Gaghan doesn't use him to his potential. The movie focuses too much on Katie and her pals, and not enough on Wade trying to solve the case. More scenes of him working could have helped establish some foundation for what happens toward the end and picked up the movie's pace. With what he has, Bratt does a great job. He's got the cop attitude under control after appearing on Law and Order for several years, and adds some humanity to the character as well. Katie Holmes is fine, but she fails to deliver in the end. Maybe that is the fault of Gaghan's script, which doesn't commit enough to the mystery's solution and doesn't shock us enough with the BIG REVELATION, so I can't blame Holmes for everything. She's supposed to be a smart, pretty gal and comes across as such. Abandon could have been better, so maybe Gaghan can get a do over, or a better follow up film. Grade: D+ Copyright 2002 - WaffleMovies.com
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