Hey folks, Harry here with a review from Florida from a very fragile scooper I'll call Mr Glass. It seems that he saw Stephen (screenwriter of TRAFFIC and doctoring THE ALAMO) Gaghan's directorial debut... ABANDON and found the movie ordinary and unspecial. Just sort of listless excitement for him. We know that feeling, and I've known that feeling from friends for movies that I both loved and hated. And I've been 'shrug-y' on films others loved. So is this an out of the popular mold view of Gaghan's effort? Only time will tell...
Hello there Harry, had a chance to see Stephen Gaghan's directorial debut Abandon at a sneak peak for FSU students on campus, I'm sure you've gotten quite a few for it already, but I found the audience I saw it with liked it more than me. And away we go.
I'll condense the following review into a crisp, quick, rotten tomatoes wannabe cream of the crop style quote:
"What The Rich Man's Wife was to Usual Suspects, and what Stir of Echoes is to Sixth Sense, is what Abandon is to an non-existent far superior film."
Have you ever seen a film and you keep seeing twists and sequences you know you've seen done much better in other movies, but just can't quite place which ones? If that's the case then Abandon is your black cat through the doorway.
Not that Abandon is a generic movie, far from it, it's just very disappointing to see a movie with such great characters and twists come across as so unspecial.
We'll get back to what sucks in a moment, but let's give credit where its due and talk about what's right. Katie Holmes and Benjamin Bratt are both very good as characters recovering in vastly different senses. Holmes is Catherine Burke, an A-list student with a bright future if sheÃll get over the dark past of losing her equally intelligent boyfriend a few years earlier. She of course has never been the same Katie B. and all of her potential seems to be eclipsed by the loss of her man and the impending graduation. Something to note here is that my description of Katie's character is far more typical than it is written and portrayed, which is anything but. This is Holmes' best work and despite the naysayers that IS saying something. Misery loves company and in comes the recovering alchoholic investigator, Detective Handler played by Benjamin Bratt. Once again, a seemingly typical character description given its own twist by the way it is written and played perfectly pathetic by Bratt.
There is something to be said for the effort by Gaghan: the direction is tight and the script is ambitious. As a writer he walks a fine line in his character's reliability, and fortunately Gaghan is always well aware where that line is. The plot is far from predictable and the twists were deserved without cheating the audience. As a director the movie moves well and is very tight, I found nowhere fat could be cut or felt there was anything missing.
Ultimately the flaw of the film is that it is just nothing special. There are mounds of potential here and I hope one day the film that this film strives to be is made.
Mr Glass
