Abandon is a damn good movie.
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03/27/03
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Abandon (2002)
17
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:108
Fresh:18
Rotten:90
Average Rating:4.3/10
Consensus: The plotline for Abandon is too disjointed and muddled to offer much in the way of thrills.
Theatrical Release:Oct 18, 2002 Wide
Box Office: $10,684,049
Synopsis: Oscar-winning screenwriter Stephen Gaghan (TRAFFIC) makes his directorial debut with ABANDON, a dense, moody psychological thriller. Loosely based on the book ADAM'S FALL by Sean Desmond, ABANDON... [More]
Starring: Katie Holmes, Charlie Hunnam, Benjamin Bratt, Zooey Deschanel
Director: Stephen Gaghan, Edward Zwick
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Reviews for Abandon
Challenging, intermittently engrossing and unflaggingly creative. But it's too long and too convoluted and it ends in a muddle.
10/18/02
Difficult to peg and just as hard to predict.
10/18/02
A competently made, mildly diverting collegiate thriller.
10/17/02
You've convinced yourself it's a drama just before the story twists, after which the throwaway 'filler' scenes become conversation points you'll decipher on the way home.
10/18/02
A psychological thriller that doesn't thrill much and whose ending we can guess halfway through; but if you're a lover of smart dialogue and intelligent characters, you won't be disappointed.
10/18/02
The twist ending ... becomes discernible around the midway point, but Gaghan makes up for it ...
01/06/04
Not terribly original but a well-made psychological thriller with fine performances.
10/15/02
[Gaghan] successfully illustrates that if a filmmaker is capable and intelligent -- and assumes that his audience is the same -- he can transcend the limitations of even so lowly a genre.
10/25/02
For what I suppose must be classified as a 'teen thriller,' this film has a surprising amount of substance.
02/08/03
... an otherwise intense, twist-and-turn thriller that certainly shouldn’t hurt talented young Gaghan’s resume.
10/17/02
Easily the most manipulative thriller since Brian De Palma retired to a career of spectacular irrelevance. That’s why it’s so effective — and fiendishly satisfying.
10/28/02
What begins as yet another school-set thriller gradually evolves into something more psychologically layered.
10/18/02
Gaghan would rather make you think than jump. You might prefer to do both, but idea-driven thrillers are in short supply, and the troubled Katie earns the right to haunt your mind.
10/17/02
Top CriticOnce I realized that Abandon was going down a different path, I really started to admire it.
10/22/02
In the end, the film is less the cheap thriller you’d expect than it is a fairly revealing study of its two main characters — damaged-goods people whose orbits will inevitably and dangerously collide.
06/27/03
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.
10/21/02
Top CriticCredit this picture with an ambitious effort to dramatize an ineffable yet recognizable mood -- even if its ambition isn't quite fulfilled.
10/18/02
A lot of confusion -- for not a lot of payoff.
10/18/02
... expands the horizons of boredom to the point of collapse, turning into a black hole of dullness, from which no interesting concept can escape.
10/18/02
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