| 75 |
Chicago Tribune
The biggest surprise may be what the filmmaker doesn't show; he withholds a big dramatic payoff, so the audience must fill in the blanks.
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| 75 |
Entertainment Weekly
Sometimes, typecasting works: Holmes and Bratt settle comfortably into their roles, and the movie proves a competently made, mildly diverting collegiate thriller -- at least until its all-too-predictable ''twist'' ending.
|
| 67 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Holmes ably handles the starring role, but the handsome Bratt doesn't have enough material to cement his film career. The supporting cast is strong.
|
| 63 |
Chicago Sun-Times
A moody, effective thriller for about 80 percent of the way, and then our hands close on air. If you walk out before the ending, you'll think it's better than it is.
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| 63 |
New York Daily News
Has the integrity of good dialogue and enough of a writer's preserved craftiness to make it a worthwhile date-night attraction.
|
| 63 |
Baltimore Sun
Abandon tags Katie Holmes as a talented actor with surprising range and vast, untapped potential - so much, in fact, that watching her, one can almost overlook the film's many flaws. Almost.
|
| 63 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Don't abandon Abandon. In the movies' long weekly line-up, it stands apart -- innocent of banality, and guilty of nothing more damning than intelligent effort that falls a tad short.
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| 50 |
Miami Herald
Too much of this well-acted but dangerously slow thriller feels like a preamble to a bigger, more complicated story, one that never materializes.
|
| 50 |
San Francisco Chronicle
A disjointed movie with uneven acting and too many scenes that defy belief.
|
| 40 |
LA Weekly
Aiming to elicit a last-minute shiver from the audience, Gaghan is likely to get instead a mood-destroying giggle.
|
| 40 |
Village Voice
Hardly a nuanced portrait of a young woman's breakdown, the film nevertheless works up a few scares, particularly a tense call-number hunt in the library stacks.
|
| 40 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Gaghan shows promise as a director, but Abandon leaves a lot of room for improvement.
|
| 40 |
The New York Times
A thriller wrapped in heavy-duty gauze to muffle the chills.
|
| 40 |
TV Guide
The story's rhythm is so bogged down in unnecessary characterization that the film can hardly breathe.
|
| 38 |
USA Today
Holmes, of Dawson's Creek, will be up the creek if she can't avoid movies like this. And so will you if you see it.
|
| 38 |
Boston Globe
Abandon is this CLOSE to being good, juicy, bad-movie fun.
|
| 38 |
ReelViews
With the flat characters and lifeless performances, it's a wonder that anyone in the audience can stay awake all the way through this dull and dreary production.
|
| 33 |
Portland Oregonian
Has a few pleasing stylistic flourishes and a potentially Hitchcockian plot, but the writing and rhythm are so off that when the final "shocker" arrives, we have seen it coming or have abandoned caring.
|
| 30 |
Los Angeles Times
A trite psychological thriller -- all buildup and no payoff, a mystery that essentially offers only two alternative solutions, which diminishes the element of surprise and strings the viewer along way past caring which possibility proves to be true.
|
| 30 |
Rolling Stone
Crossing "A Beautiful Mind" with "Sex Kittens Go to College," first-time director Stephen Gaghan (he wrote Traffic) causes a head-on collision.
|
| 30 |
Variety
Passably interesting psychological study of emotionally wounded characters until it commits dramatic suicide by showing its true colors as a tricked-up "Fatal Attraction" wannabe.
|
| 30 |
Austin Chronicle
What hath "The Sixth Sense" wrought? These days, it seems as if every psychological thriller has a surprise finish.
|
| 30 |
Salon.com
This alleged thriller, which might be described as "'Gaslight' Goes to College," is one of the most incoherent features in recent memory.
|
| 20 |
Chicago Reader
Stephen Gaghan, who scripted this turkey, landed in the director's chair after Edward Zwick (Glory) bailed out, and you can almost smell the flop sweat.
|
| 12 |
New York Post
A confusing mishmash.
|
| 10 |
Washington Post
Consider the title your best advice.
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