Written and directed by “Traffic” screenwriter Stephen Gaghan, “Abandon” aims higher than the average teen thriller.
That’s about where it lands, though.

Katie Holmes of “Dawson’s Creek” plays Katie, a college senior counting down the last days until graduation and a likely job with a high-paying Manhattan consulting firm.

Two years ago Katie’s boyfriend, the wealthy and haughty Embry (Charlie Hunnam, a Heath Ledger substitute), vanished. No one knows what happened to him, but he was so contemptuous of society, everyone figured his disappearance was a theatrical stunt.

Now police Detective Wade Handler (Benjamin Bratt) has been assigned to close the case. He questions Katie, who has tried to forget about the pain Embry caused her. Soon after Handler contacts her, Katie glimpses of Embry around campus.
Handler thinks Embry is dead, but Katie becomes convinced he is hiding nearby, stalking her.

Despite intelligent dialogue and decent performances, the girlfriend-in-peril plot is so decrepit no jolt to the heart can revive it. Zooey Deschanel’s performance as Katie’s goofy roommate provides one of the few signs of life.

A story with such an unlikely premise shouldn’t stretch credibility any further, as “Abandon” does by having the detective fall in love with his young witness. This development is the creepiest thing in the story.

Embry wasn’t the first man in Katie’s life to vanish. When she was a girl her father left her in a snow-covered field and never returned. So she has abandonment issues (nudge-nudge, wink-wink).

No matter how many times it was edited – and it looks like it got worked over a dozen times – the “surprise” ending is easy to guess. “Abandon” is a dark, dull thriller with a parting shot that misfires.