Frank Ochieng is a guest critic who also writes reviews for his own personal website, located here.

To become a Guest Critic for CINEMA 2000, please notify David Keyes.

Review Uploaded
10/21/02

Starring: Katie Holmes, Benjamin Bratt, Zooey Deschanel, Fred Ward, Gabrielle Union, Gabriel Mann, Melanie Lynskey, Charlie Hunnam, Will McCormack, Tony Goldwyn
Directed by: Stephen Gaghan

Frank’s film tip: “Abandon” all thought of engaging in a thorough teen psychological thriller in director Stephen Gaghan’s lukewarm delusional drama

Writer-director Stephen Gaghan (“Traffic”) tries to deliver a supernatural puzzle but the pieces are somewhat missing in the derivative sleepwalking thriller Abandon. It’s safe to say that Gaghan’s mawkish mystery isn’t very original in concept for an Oscar-winning screenwriter of his caliber. The blueprint to this tepid psychological drama is about as complex as solving a case handled by Inspector Gadget. Abandon wants to be a cerebral whodunnit spookfest but it doesn’t have the hearty twists and turns to generate anything worth pondering beyond the hollow and murky script. If anything, Gaghan was astute enough to gear this college-bound caper to the young set by featuring a good-looking and energetic cast of performers. Abandon has its wincing moments here and there, but for the most part this lackluster teen drama is about as chilling and calculating as a cold half-eaten pork chop.

This melancholy melodrama stars Katie Holmes (most notably from TV’s “Dawson’s Creek”) as Catherine Burke, a college student on the verge of graduating. The knock on this particular collegiate cutie is that she has a tendency to drive away the loving males in her life for whatever inexplicable reason that may exist. We’re even told that Catherine’s father had picked up and left under suspicious circumstances. Obviously this causes abandonment issues for our haunted heroine to contemplate with amazement. But to an outsider’s point of view, one would have to question whether or not the perplexed Catherine is actively behind these daunting disappearances. Thus, the film poses the main inquiry: is the abandoned state of affairs something that should be considered a cynical label to bestow on Catherine or is this just a continuing coincidental occurrence that’s unfairly perpetrated upon this seemingly unlucky overachieving gal?

In the latest “where did he go?” sweepstakes, the spotlight is turned on Catherine’s formerly charming but pushy boyfriend Embry (Charlie Hunnam). Out of the blue, the guy disappears without a trace two years ago since the glory days when he and Catherine was an intimate item. Enter ex-boozehound detective Wade Handler (Benjamin Bratt, “Pinero”, “Miss Congeniality”) whose sole job is to track down the missing Embry. The nervous Catherine is understandably shaken up at the thought of the inquisitive Handler coming to her campus and causing a scene about a departed beau she rarely thinks about anymore. And why should she care about Embry when she has a promising job lined up after she leaves her matriculating days behind? Still, Handler is putting on the heat and taking on more than he can chew much to the dismay of a secretive Catherine.

As the pressure is being put on courtesy of Handler bombarding Catherine with bewildering questions, the young woman starts to envision Embry hanging around the place all of the sudden. Is the constant drilling by Handler causing Catherine to develop an Embry complex? Is this figment of her imagination meant as a wake up call of guilt? Or is it such that maybe Embry has finally arrived after his previous hasty exit? Whether Catherine sleeps, eats or parties, she cannot elude the imagery of her prior sweetheart. Essentially, her brain is fixated on the former suitor as his memory keeps ringing in her complex head.

Soon the film works at distributing its awkward trickery by throwing into the mix a couple of curveball complications to make Handler’s staid investigation more compelling. Because Catherine is a desirable centerpiece that any guy wouldn’t mind coveting, naturally there are suspects who may have been instrumental in Embry’s retreat of yesteryear. After all, with the cocky Embry out of the way, honeybunny Catherine becomes a free agent for the taking. Among the possibilities of desperate forces that may have had a hand in this dire episode include long-distance Catherine Burke admirer Harrison (Gabriel Mann) and a suggestive campus head shrink
(Tony Goldwyn) who may have more on his mind other than treating this bookworm babe for whatever ails her psyche. And to top it off, even the gamy gumshoe Handler wouldn’t mind playing footsies with the scholastic sexy siren.

Overall, the quandary that embroils Catherine never lets up and as the so-called tension builds, the filmmakers feel it’s right to keep us second-guessing about the peril that lamely exists. Will Catherine get over her stigmatized abandonment guilt trip? Will Handler conquer his craving for alcohol not to mention his penchant for wanting the delicious Catherine as his soothing appetizer? Will the story’s key players (or we the audience for that matter) ever figure out as to whether the cad figurehead Embry really had returned to the scene or not? Quite frankly, the pending questions that are raised probably aren’t that interesting as the answers this shallow showcase hopes to corral.

As a first-time director, Gaghan oversees what amounts to be a perfunctory project riddled with choppy editing techniques (via flashback sequences) and a distracting cinematography that extracts a bluish blinding background. The storyline is a snoozer to say the least and houses a bunch of individuals whom one wouldn’t give two cents to care about. Holmes fits the expected mode as the typical curvy and worldly lusty looker stuck in an aimless provocative parade of casual sex and drug usage. Sure, the film puts her beauty to use in this titillating yawner but for the most part Holmes is mere leading lady eye candy playing second fiddle to the muddled material that suffocates her affecting participation. Bratt is never really convincing as an alcoholic battling his demons. Mainly, this subplot about his sobriety literally loses its dramatic luster because it feels forced and thrown in there for good measure as some sympathetic filler to pad this disjointed piece of dreck. As for the supporting cast, particularly Zooey Deschanel and Gabrielle Union as Catherine’s colorful galpals, they are decent in their limited roles but nevertheless underused in the scheme of things.

Abandon has a milieu that isn’t quite capable enough of stirring up any jolting vibes to render this weak and hindered psychological vehicle as anything startlingly riveting. Bogged down in predictable contrivances, this diluted diatribe is lukewarm in its graceless and rudimentary execution. Hence, the only thing one might think of abandoning regarding this feeble frenetic flick is their movie theater seat.

Frank rates this film: ** stars (out of 4 stars)