Posted: 11/02/02
Abandon (2002)
by Joe Steiff
New suspenser features some good actors in otherwise predictable film.
As I purchased my ticket for Abandon and entered the Cineplex in Racine, Wisconsin, I became aware of distinct audience demographics at play. Most of the ticket holders my age were walking into theaters marked Sweet Home Alabama or My Big Fat Greek Wedding, unless they had kids, and then they were heading into that Jonah vegetable movie. I refrained from expressing my sympathy to them, because, they may have expressed sympathy for me seeing Abandon. And as I walked into the half-light of my theater, I realized that I was the youngest person in the audience by at least twenty years, and lest you make assumptions about how old I am, let's just leave it I was the only one without gray hair.Could Dawson's Creek be a secret hit among pensioners? Or do the elderly love college movies? Hard to say, but my assumption that fans of Katie are the target audience for this film -- or who that fan base is -- was pretty quickly shattered.
Stephen Gaghan is a TV writer who graduated to screenplays, most notably Traffic, an adaptation of a British television series. Here he takes the directing duties as well in a film that borrows from genres such as film noir and the thriller to create a rather unique college film that's filled not with laughs but with anxiety. No Animal House here, but there is some animal behavior.
In fact, this variation on the typical college film is one of Abandon's freshest elements.
Katie Burke (not to be confused with the actor Katie Holmes portraying her) is about to graduate from college and has a major case of completion anxiety. Her sanity begins to disintegrate with the encroaching graduation day, job search and a re-opened investigation into the two-year old disappearance of her boyfriend, Embry, played by Charlie Hunnam. Hunnam may be known to mainstream US audiences for his TV series Undeclared, but he is notorious to gay men everywhere as the frequently naked and very sexual jail bate in Britain's TV series Queer As Folk).
Abandon never quite makes clear why the police feel the need to re-open the investigation at this particular point, and in fact, it is almost implied that there really wasn't a previous investigation and the case has just been languishing. But either way, Benjamin Bratt plays the cliched detective-in-recovery who is tossed this bone of a case to either prove himself as fit to resume duty or to in effect keep him out of the way of the policeman who can hold their liquor and haven't gotten into trouble. The fact that Katie gives him a boner is just incidental, or is it?
Gradually we learn of Katie as a woman every guy wants, but no one wants to keep. Several of her peers suggest that she is oblivious to the power she has over men, but what her peers don't see is that the men she wants ultimately abandon her. This discrepancy could be psychologically interesting in more capable hands, but as in The Gift, Katie Holmes seems too young for the role she's given -- her portrayal here doesn't convey the layers of identity necessary for this role to really work. Nor do her looks, which is ironic, because Katie Holmes is a lovely young woman and college-aged, but she seems like a high school student pretending to be in college.
The fact that graduation is a time of transition creates an interesting backdrop for different aspects of Katie's life to come full circle or to come to some sort of closure. The detective's arrival on campus coincides with the gradual dismantling of Katie's life there, as her old dorm is being demolished, as she struggles to complete her thesis, as she interviews for jobs and as the long-missing Embry begins stalking her.
Abandon is not a horror film, though it has some suspenseful moments. In effect, it's a mystery -- why does Embry choose now to re-enter her life? Where has he been hiding? The answer, when all is said and done, makes sense, but is not entirely satisfying. Maybe it's that some of the imagery is just too heavy-handed, clueing the audience in long before Katie or the Detective seem to realize what's going on, or maybe it's just that Katie Holmes doesn't convey the shifting realities her character has to face. Either way, the film has some beautiful images and one of my favorite sound designs and soundtracks this year. And the film captures that eerie moment between college life and the "real world" - when one is torn between a world that has become comfortable and familiar and a world that is scary and filled with pressure. Best are the moments in the library, capturing the haze of late-night studying when one's peripheral vision begins playing tricks.
But these strengths are really about atmosphere and tone. The story feels just a bit too predictable. There's nothing really new here. And it's not that difficult to figure out -- which is ultimately what keeps this film from being really good.
Joe Steiff remembers all too well working late at the library and facing completion anxiety. Hell, he just had to deal with all of that writing this review...
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