Rating: 
Summary: Forgettable college-thriller never grows boring
Review: Abandon (2002) Katie Holmes, Benjamin Bratt, Charlie Hunnam, Zooey Deschanel, Melanie Lynskey, Gabrielle Union, Gabriel Mann, Tony Goldwyn, Will McCormack, Fred Ward, Mark Feuerstein D: Stephen Gaghan. TRAFFIC's Academy Award-winning writer Gaghan bases his new screenplay loosely on Adam's Fall, a novel written by Sean Desmond, and sits in the director's chair. His thriller stars Holmes as Katie Burke, a sharp-witted college student, who has just aced a job interview with a firm and is in the process of completing her thesis and studying for finals, then her ex-boyfriend, Embry (Hunnam) reappears after he vanished for two years. Is Katie hallucinating? Certainly not when Detective Bratt even gets on the case, right? An inside look at collegian parties, studying, and females blossoming to sexual maturity; the leading lady's roommates are well portrayed by funny-girl Deschanel and Union, plus Lynskey as a mousy librarian. Still, very well crafted, the unforeseen twist near the denouement throws the suspense out the window and almost seems the mood was made for nothing. Running Time: 99 minutes and rated PG-13 for drug and alcohol content, sexuality, some violence, and language.
Rating: 
Summary: Not enough story to warrant a feature film
Review: First off, starting with the positives - 'Abandon,' on DVD contains an above average video transfer and a superb, well mixed Dolby 5.1 audio track. The score is moody and foreboding without being too over the top as well. The disc extras are somewhat light with your typical 'making of' featurette and 8 or so deleted scenes that are instantly forgettable. On the downside the storyline borders on meager. As a psychological crime thriller this film would've been better suited as a 22 minute episode of 'Alfred Hitchcok Presents' rather then the 98 minute feature it was stretched out to be. Couple this with the overall lackluster performances and you're left with a flick you could well do without unless you find yourself nursing a hangover one morning with nothing better to do.
Rating: 
Summary: unforgettable
Review: "unforgettable phychological thrill ride", so says the promo, don't believe it, this movie stunk up my living room. Katie Holmes does not act in this mess, she stares blankely. Why did I hire this mess? I like thrillers, really I do, should stick to Hitchcock, this was really bad. No one from dawson's creek can act properly, no one.
Rating:
Summary: anemic thriller with good cast
Review: this one makes your blood thin. I watched this expecting a lot of twists but it didnt, only the end. Katie Holmes is beautiful as always but we dont feel for her character. Benjamin Bratt is always watchable but his character seems a little bit out of shape and Charlie Humane or whatever his last name is, is boring as hell as Holmes supposedly dead boyfriend. theres moments where you keep wondering, theres moments where you get headaches like that scene where Holmes and friends get high and its like 4 minutes of blue flashing. anyways it wasnt that good but it wasnt horrible. Stephen Gaghan wrote a even better movie called Traffic
Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: I'm often on the lookout for independent films but this movie was just plain boring. The best character was the one who died, the young college boy with a vision. This movie was just drab and what made it worse was that it was part of a cop investigation. That didn't help the plot at all. Had potential to be decent if the approach was different. Skip it.
Rating:
Summary: eh...........
Review: I never, ever thought I'd say it...but Katie Holmes on screen about 98% of the time just didn't do enough to make this movie worth it. Decent premise, I suppose. Boyfriend missing, recovering alcoholic cop on the verge of a relapse. It just doesn't add up, and there's a supposed "twist" at the end can be guessed as soon as you learn the premise. Coulda been better.
Rating:
Summary: Abandon? Abandon this movie
Review: I have to say that the movie really turned me down. Just a katie is a preety girl, and nothing more...
That's even NOT a thriller movie... boring scenario..
Rating:
Summary: unforgettable
Review: "unforgettable phychological thrill ride", so says the promo, don't believe it, this movie stunk up my living room. Katie Holmes does not act in this mess, she stares blankely. Why did I hire this mess? I like thrillers, really I do, should stick to Hitchcock, this was really bad. No one from dawson's creek can act properly, no one.
Rating:
Summary: dark, twisting thriller that... erm...truly... um.. Zzzzzzzz
Review: Suckered in by the synopsis of this film on a box office channel I decided to check it out. The film follows the tale of a female college student in the middle of writing her thesis, who finds herself suddenly involved in the investigation of her ex-boyfriend's disappearance 2 years ago. After a fairly decent start that managed to keep me interested, I found myself unbelievably being gently lulled into a peaceful sleep at 2 in the afternoon by the film's dire lack of pace, extremeley quiet low key performances, and dull rambling script. After several minutes of my head lolling forward I found that I could no longer fight the hypnotic power of Abandon, and gave in to it's will. I woke up somewhere near the end, some 45 minutes later, where the film wound up with one of those not-really-much-of-a-surprise endings. I really am struggling to find something positive to say about the film. Some of the lighting was quite nice, and the opening music was very mood-setting. Katie Homles was ok. But apart from that, it was very poor. The basic idea was extremely good, but somehow the film just completely fails to deliver. I just get the feeling that it could have been so much more - a better script, better leading men and more inventive ideas could have saved it. As it is, I would avoid, unless you're wide awake at 1 am panicing about not getting enough sleep for work. In which case, stick it on and sail away to the land of nod...
Rating:
Summary: RECKLESS ABANDON
Review: It's hard to believe that this script was written by Oscar winner Stephen Gagham ("Traffic"). In the interviews afterward, he comes across as a self-effacing young man obviously riding on his Oscar win. He also directs this and it's no more at times than an MTV music video (especially the annoying strobe-lighted sequence where Katie sees her long lost Embrey).
The movie is painfully slow in getting to the point, and the endless flashbacks to the little girl in the snow are never fully explained.
On the up side, however, are the dynamic performances of Katie Holmes and Benjamin Bratt. Holmes milks everything out of her girl next door, yet sexy, looks, and is especially good in the interview sequence, where she seems totally in control of things. Bratt parlays his smoldering macho into a genuinely caring, if blind, detective. In a smaller role as Holmes' psychiatrist, Tony Goldwyn gives off a smug lechery.
Gagham obviously focused on making this a "kid accessible" film, but insults their intelligence in not really supplying any real suspense or surprise. I could see the ending coming within the first twenty minutes.
Stylish, yet stifling.
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