When I first saw previews for the movie Abandon, I thought it looked like it would be good and I decided that I wanted to see it. I didn't see it when it was in the theaters. It was recently released on DVD and VHS. I rented it one night along with a few others. The movie was ok, but it wasn't that great. I have seen much better movies.

PLOT

Katie Burke was a senior in college. She was working on her thesis and preparing for graduation. She was a bit stressed with everything that was going on. She was spending more time thinking about her former boyfriend Embry Larkin. The two had been dating for a while when he disappeared two years before. No one knew where he went or had heard from him since he vanished.

Embry’s parents both died and left him a lot of money. If he died without having an heir, all his money would go to either a company or a charity - I can’t remember which now. He had to be declared legally dead before that happened. The police started to investigate Embry’s disappearance again because the wheels had been set in motion to have him declared dead. Wade Handler was the police officer who was now investigating Embry’s disappearance.

Wade turned up on campus and started to ask people about Embry. He talked to Katie and she answered his questions the best she could. Katie seemed to be a little upset by the fact that Wade was asking questions about Embry around campus. Wade seemed to be drawn to Katie and kept turning up to ask her more questions. Embry and Katie had been planning to leave together before his disappearance. Embry had been jealous of Katie’s male friends. Katie’s friends said that he broke her heart. Katie hadn’t been on a date since Embry left. Wade continued to investigate Embry and learn more about him. Embry had been involved with the theater at the college. He and Katie met through that. Someone told Wade that Embry had lost interest in Katie before he left.

Katie was struggling to finish her thesis. She was having trouble concentrating and having some strange dreams. She was going to see a therapist. She and some of her friends had interviews with a big company that was looking for new employees at the college. Katie had some frank answers to some of the questions she was asked and that seemed to impress the people from the company. Katie started to see Embry around town. She told Wade that she was afraid of Embry. No one else saw Embry. After Katie saw Embry, one of her male friends seemed to vanish. Katie was afraid that Embry was responsible.

Wade continued to investigate. He had some problems of his own and some demons he had to deal with. He was drawn to Katie and she seemed to like him too. Katie went to see him one night when she was upset. They spent more time together and seemed to become closer. They did become intimate.

Katie kept having strange dreams. She seemed to be cracking up. Wade kept trying to figure out what happened to Embry. Why did he suddenly leave? Where did he go? Why was he back? What did he want?

CAST

Katie Holmes - Katie Burke
Benjamin Bratt - Wade Handler
Charlie Hunnam - Embry Larkin

Stephen Gaghan - Writer and Director

Abandon was released in 2002. The movie was 99 minutes long and rated PG-13. Abandon is now available on DVD and VHS. I rented the DVD version of the movie. The picture and sound quality was very good. There were some extras on the DVD, but I didn’t have a chance to check them out before the movie had to go back.

Abandon was meant to be a suspenseful thriller. I think it failed. I didn’t think it was that suspenseful at all. There were one or two moments that had a bit of suspense in them, but that was it. Most of what happened was predictable, though there were one or two things that happened that surprised me. The movie had a slow pace, and it was boring at times. It seemed like some of the things that were going on were only thrown in to make the movie longer. I had a few unanswered questions once the movie was over. Most of the questions were answered, but I had a few others by the end of the movie that didn’t get answered. Wade’s investigation into what happened to Embry provided a little bit of mystery for the movie. It wasn’t that hard to figure out though.

There were flashbacks used throughout Abandon. There were times when it wasn’t at first if the scene was a flashback or not. It was harder to pick out the flashbacks at the beginning of the movie before I figured out exactly who the characters were. It was a little confusing at times. The flashbacks did help to explain some things. The relationship between Embry and Katie was shown all through flashbacks. Sometimes it seemed like they were stuck into the movie in strange places. The flashbacks did help some things to make more sense, but they could have been handled a bit better.

Katie had some strange dreams throughout Abandon. Most of the time it was very easy to tell when she was having a dream since most of them tended to be the same thing. There were one or two others that were a bit different, so it wasn’t as clear that what was going on was a dream. There were a few other things that happened that I’m still not sure about. There were a few things that happened that after the movie ended and the resolution was shown, I’m not if they were dreams, hallucinations, or something else. Those few things really weren’t explained at the end.

Once they met, Wade was drawn to Katie and spent a lot of time thinking about her. Katie seemed to like him too. They ended up spending a lot of time together and they did sleep together. That wasn’t actually shown. There was some kissing shown, and Wade and Katie were shown in bed together the next morning. Some skin was shown, but there was no actual nudity in the movie. There were no actual sex scenes either. Even though Wade and Katie became involved, there didn’t seem to be any romance to their relationship. Before he left, Katie and Embry had been dating for a while. Their relationship was just shown through flashbacks. Two years after he disappeared, Katie saw Embry around town. She told Wade that she was afraid of Embry. Katie didn’t seem to be upset about Embry leaving and not contacting her while he was gone. She was just scared of him.

There was some strange lighting used in some scenes of Abandon. Some scenes looked very washed out. There was hardly any color in them and they looked almost like they were in black in white. Those scenes were extremely bright. It was mainly the scenes when Katie was in the library working on her thesis that looked like that, but one or two other scenes also had lighting like that. The rest of the movie was in normal color.

There was a scene in Abandon when the students were having a part in the dorm. Katie and some of her friends were at the party. They were drinking a lot. It could be upsetting to some people to see that. There was some drug use in the movie as well.

The acting in Abandon was alright, but it was nothing spectacular. There really weren’t any stand out performances. I have seen Katie Holmes in a few episodes of Dawson’s Creek, but I’ve never been interested in that show, so I never paid any attention to the acting of Katie Holmes in it. I did see her in The Gift, and she was pretty good in that movie, though her role was smaller. That role was different from the part she played in Abandon. Benjamin Bratt has been in a few movies. I thought he was good in Miss Congeniality. That is the only movie I have seen him in. I have seen a few episodes of Law and Order that he was in. Katie Holmes and Benjamin Bratt were both good in their roles. The other actors were also ok.

CHARACTERS

Katie Burke - Senior in college who was stressed out over her thesis and graduation. She was focused on her thesis. She didn’t date. She was seeing her former boyfriend around town and she was scared of him.

Wade Handler - The police officer who was investigating Embry’s disappearance. He had his own problems with drinking to deal with while working on the investigation. Wade was interested in Katie.

Embry Larken - A rich college student who vanished two years before. He had been involved in the theater at the college. He wrote an opera and made a strange film. He and Katie had been dating for a while before he left.

Abandon had some interesting aspects to the plot, but it didn’t live up to the potential. The movie turned out to be rather boring and not very good. There are better movies to watch.





Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older