ABANDON

By: Abbie Bernstein
Review Date: Friday, October 18, 2002

ABANDON can't entirely get away from the traps that plague its genre smart young college student is subjected to ominous occurrences relating to a possibly insane peer but writer/director Stephen Gaghan (of TRAFFIK fame) takes such pleasure in providing snappy dialogue and odd little character riffs that the movie rises above its conventions in places.

Katie Burke (Katie Holmes) is a driven student who's overcome an impoverished background to win a full scholarship at an Ivy League institution. Poised to graduate, trying to finish her thesis and applying for jobs in a tough market, Katie is further stressed out when police Det. Wade Handler (Benjamin Bratt) starts investigating a missing persons case concerning Katie's ex, fellow student Embry Larkin (Charlie Hunnam). The very wealthy Embry vanished two years ago after making a flamboyant and characteristically contemptuous speech to the adoring audience at an opera he'd written. Katie was deeply hurt at the time her friends tell Handler she hasn't dated since but she's now shaken up when she first glimpses a figure who looks like Embry at a distance, then senses she is not alone late at night in the library. Handler himself is battling an addiction to the bottle and an attraction to Katie.

This isn't

by any stretch an average stalker flick for one thing, as noted, it almost has one foot in character study, defying cliché in some instances.  It's possible to guess the central twist (and from there, most of what will happen) about 20 minutes in, but this knowledge won't necessarily prevent many viewers from enjoying the ride, because we still want to see exactly how it plays out. Embry really is, as the saying goes, a piece of work, a bratty, inhumane and charming genius, while Katie's pals get some droll ruminations and interactions, coming off as something other than cannon fodder for once. With less baroque specifics and the scares which are staged to good effect ABANDON could easily pass as a proficient straight coming-of-age comedy/drama.

Holmes is a personable lead who is persuasive in the character's brainy ambition and vulnerability. Bratt is subdued but credible as the detective and Hunnam makes a strong impression as a young man who lives to bring others low. Zooey Deschanel, Gabriel Mann, Gabrielle Union and Will McCormack all score as Katie's college mates and Melanie Lynskey is whimsically creepy as a socially dysfunctional type.

It's a shame that ABANDON tips its hand rather early and doesn't cover its tracks, but it still has a good deal going for it.

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