2002, PG-13, 99 minutes

Abandon is one of those movies where everything technical about it is good, from the performances by Katie Holmes and Benjamin Bratt to the direction by first-timer Stephen Gaghan (who wrote Traffic), but in the end the pieces just don't fit together properly and what you have is a bit of a mess even though it looks good. Strangely, it's difficult to pinpoint what exaclty is wrong with the film, but after sitting through it there's little doubt that something is definitely wrong.

For the most part Abandon is a schizophrenically-paced psychological thriller that is held together by a great sense of gloom and mystery, but in the final ten minutes or so the story completely collapses. In fact, this last part not only makes for a slightly odd and not very satisfying finish, but it also forces you to realize that everything that came before it wasn't structured as well as it once appeared to be. In other words, moments that previously seemed to work are subsequently destroyed, so even if you enjoyed them upon first glance, you won't enjoy them any longer once you think back after it's all over. In addition to the story falling apart, there's a big twist at the end, half of which is actually surprising while the other half is completely predictable.

I give the film credit for sticking with its characters and making it more about them than the plot, but in the end Abandon is little more than that first directorial disaster some artists need to get out of their system. Perhaps Gaghan should have tried working from someone else's screenplay so he could spot the glaring mistakes in the story, which is much more difficult when working with your own material. Even so, I'm anxious to see what he comes up with for his sophomore effort. You probably won't like Abandon if you see it, but it's not nearly as bad as a lot of Hollywood movies these days.