[4]

SPOILER REVIEW

Within the first half-hour of Abandon, a police detective (Benjamin Bratt) asks an ambitious college student (Katie Holmes) about her missing boyfriend. The college student doesn’t seem to care that her boyfriend is missing, so I immediately thought, hmmm… I bet she killed him. And she did. Boy, do I hate being right. Especially when the rest of the entire film is designed to slowly reveal to me what I already figured out. But when you want to hang your movie on big twists like that, you run that risk. (Big twists are SO overrated.)

On the plus side, director Stephen Gaghan (Syriana) gives this droll procedural a bit of flair, and whenever the missing/dead boyfriend pops up, he’s played by hunky Charlie Hunnam (Pacific Rim, Sons of Anarchy). The third act also gives Katie Holmes an opportunity to play against her cherubic type and go a little psycho-crazy on some bitches. So that’s kinda cool.