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Flight Centre Specials
Abandon all hope here
By Nils van der Linden
Posted Mon, 07 Apr 2003
Stephen Gaghan should know better. During the 90s he honed his writing skills on such acclaimed, fast-paced TV shows as 'NYPD Blue', 'New York Undercover' and 'The Practice'. He then crafted the excellent screenplay for 'Traffic', effortlessly weaving three convoluted and diverging plotlines into a single, coherent strand that was both gripping and intriguing. The resulting Oscar, for what was only his second film script, was not a surprise
What is surprising, however, is that his next script, for the thriller 'Abandon', should be so flawed.
Also marking Gaghan's directorial debut, it focuses on one Katie Burke — an ambitious, hard working student in her final year at college. She's stressed about her upcoming exams, having trouble completing her thesis and facing a series of daunting job interviews. There's little time for anything beyond the realm of academics, which is how Katie has chosen to live since the mysterious disappearance of her boyfriend, Embry Langan, two years previously. Still haunted by memories and recurring dreams of their time together (cue the flashbacks), she's upset to discover that now, of all times, the police are launching an investigation into Embry's whereabouts
Enter Detective Wade Handler, a washed up police officer and recovering alcoholic given the menial job of uncovering the student's whereabouts. Soon after he begins asking questions of an initially reluctant Katie, she catches glimpses of Embry back on campus. Yet, instead of approaching his former girlfriend, Embry seems intent on stalking and taunting the increasingly distraught Katie — even while she sleeps.
And so Gaghan sets up what has the potential to be a taut psychological thriller. However, after a promising 45 minutes, the film slowly unravels and loses its focus as the storyline begins to plod and meander aimlessly. The result: 'Abandon' loses all sense of intrigue — a fatal blow to a thriller of this sort.
The film's ending does bring a faint degree of redemption, but in order to get there and keep the audience in the dark as long as possible, Gaghan increasingly resorts to a series of flashbacks and fast forwards. Instead of building tension, this non-linear development is jarring and clumsy, causing continuity problems that initially leave the viewer wondering if scenes were accidentally cut during editing. Such writing or scene construction is not justified by an ending that is less clever, or surprising, than Gaghan seems to think.
Against this confused backdrop, the lead actors are rarely stretched. Katie Holmes is on familiar ground as the dedicated student Katie Burke and is only given a chance to show her mettle in two scenes. The first, a job interview for a high powered financial job, allows Holmes to reveal her character's drive and calculating mind; the second gives her the chance to show some intensity as Katie berates Embry for the emotional trauma he caused her by leaving.
As the temporary target of her anger, Charlie Hunnam has little to do apart from look smouldering and ocassionally behave like an egotistical and pretentious drama student. Benjamin Bratt, as the has-been police officer, is given a little more to work with — but not much. He spends most of his time bumbling along, following Katie around campus, and interviewing arbitrary students and college professors. There is a brief moment of depth where Handler reveals the traumas of his alcohol addiction at an AA meeting, but these scenes are too isolated to flesh out characters that remain largely two-dimensional — another flaw in Gaghan's ill-conceived script and, ultimately, the film.
Which is a pity. Had the writing been tightened up, 'Abandon' could have been a solid thriller rather than a flawed little potboiler.
For more on the film, go to the official 'Abandon' website: http://www.abandonmovie.com/
What the international critics are saying:
"It's light on the chills and heavy on the atmospheric weirdness, and there are moments of jaw-droppingly odd behavior - yet I found it weirdly appealing."
- Richard Roeper, EBERT & ROEPER
"Hardly a nuanced portrait of a young woman's breakdown, the film nevertheless works up a few scares."
- Ed Park, VILLAGE VOICE
"Gaghan ... has thrown every suspenseful cliché in the book at this nonsensical story."
- Megan Turner, NEW YORK POST
"Difficult to peg and just as hard to predict."
- Brian Webster, APOLLO GUIDE
