Techtite's DVD Reviews!

"I think what's really bad for any crime drama...is when its failures remind you of a comedy about a scriptwriter writing a similar story, only to have his own wife admit that it sucks."

---from the review

-----------------

Feel free to contribute. As always, review submissions are accepted!

------------------

Sidebar ::

-------------

Flashbacks are rarely a simple flash-in-the-pan. You'll hear a lot of flak about this film and its hard to follow "flashback" sequences. To be fair, it is no easy task to write or direct fluid, non-confusing flashback sequences. Yet even the slightest of nuances could've tipped us off to "young Katie" versus "older Katie." Maybe she wore/wears glasses, or maybe she just cut her hair different. The only difference seems to be how Catherine Burke is always smiling and looking adoringly at Embry in the flashbacks, while now she seems a stressed-out, disheveled, borderline alcoholic. Kudos should go to Katie Holmes, who does a perfect job in both cases, smiling her "Dawson's Creek, Season One" smile in the flashbacks, while giving her mature "Season Six" smirk in the present-day shots. However, a bit of help in the make-up and costuming department would have been nice.

Abandon

Click picture to order this DVD (widescreen)

Full screen also available: Click Here.

A Techtite Review

As Always, a review of The Film and The DVD (extras)!

The Film: While people look to Reese Witherspoon as "The Next Big Thing," I find myself keeping an eye on Katie Holmes as well...and perhaps, even a bit more. From Ice House to The Gift, I see a bright future for her. Unfortunately, her latest film, Abandon, fails to prove my point. Or maybe it does. Its faults surely aren't because of her. On the other hand, I can say the same thing for Reese Witherspoon, for every cockeyed script she's starred in since Election. Do they share the same agent...?

The story here is hard to categorize, since it's not really a mystery, not really a drama, and not really a thriller. Catherine "Katie" Burke (Katie Holmes) is a go-getter college student whose endless nights of senior college studies, finishing her thesis, and looking for a prestigious job, all have her on the brink of total exhaustion. It doesn't make it any easier when Detective Wade Handler (Benjamin Bratt) comes in, re-opening a two-year-old case involving Embry Langan (Charlie Hunnam), Katie's rich playboy ex-boyfriend. He wants to know any leads she may have to his whereabouts.

Don't blame the trailer for spoiling a major plot device; this story is a bit devoid of interest unless you do. That said, let me say what the trailers (and many early-bird reviews) already reveal: Katie begins to see Embry hanging around her school, apparently with the intent of harassing her. While this might lead to an intriguing stalker thriller it instead leads to a mystery that is so predictable, the simplest of comparisons would reveal it in a heartbeat. References to a book that inspired the script, or other similar films, or even delving into the meaning behind the title "Abandon," all threaten the plot twist "surprises" in the final reel, which are surprising only to the film's characters. There is creepiness to this "thriller," to be sure, though none as creepy as when Wade daringly begins a relationship with Katie; a girl 15 years his junior.

It's fair to note, in defense of writer/director Stephen Gaghan (who also wrote the award-winning Traffic), that a story like this could only lead to predictability, regardless of whatever direction was made in the final reel. You could mix and match any number of plot threads in this "missing person mystery" story, like a game of literary "Twister," and still come up with pure bunk. Maybe Embry is missing though maybe not; maybe her sightings of Embry are hallucinations from exhaustion, though maybe not; maybe he didn't really leave though maybe not; maybe a murder is being hidden or maybe there's nothing to hide; and maybe the ending will be a closed-case...though nobody can resist the temptation of a possible sequel, so...maybe not. The list of possibilities seems endless, yet every combination has been done, done, and done.

I think what's really bad for any crime drama, however, is when its failures remind you of a comedy about a scriptwriter writing a similar story, only to have his own wife admit that it sucks. That film would be Funny Farm, where Chevy Chase offers Madolyn Smith a peek at a rough draft of his crime novel. She winds up in tears as she mentions the story's ill-conceived "flash back...flash forward...I think there was even a flash-sideways!" This film's final reel is embarrassingly similar: a flash forward, a flash-further-forward, a flashback to before the first flash forward, then a flash to the second flash-forward again, then a flash back to the original story's "present" (which I guess in now the past) interspersed with further flash-backs of Embry's initial departure. This all leads to a final flash-forward to the farthest flash-forward (the "present," we must presume) only to have a final scene that cries out "sequel" without realizing that such storytelling failures will unlikely lead to one.

However, don't let any of the blame here fall on poor Katie's shoulders...or Benjamin Bratt's, for that matter. While neither performance is Oscar-worthy, their efforts surely deserve kudos; they worked very well with what little they were given. This goes triple, however, for Zooey Deschanel, whose role as Katie Burke's party-girl best friend steals every scene she's in. That's extremely rare...though sadly, not rare enough to forgive the film's faults elsewhere. 

---Techtite

The DVD: Commentary is by writer/director Stephen Gaghan. While it's nice enough I always have problem with one-man shows as audio commentaries, even if said one man is both writer and director. There just isn't any clever repartee, leading to lulls in the commentary and in the end, not as good of a comment track is it could have been.

Sadly, that's about it...though purely by accident. There are the theatrical trailers, sure, plus a making-of featurette and deleted/extended scenes. However, I cannot summarize for you what such deleted and extended scenes are --as I usually do-- because I totally forgot to look for them this time around. I was too busy discussing the ending of the film with my fellow movie buff to remember to check for such added footage. Is that worth raising the grade for this film, given that the ending was so conversation-worthy? Nah. Maybe somebody someday will send me a review submission with a deleted scene list...though I doubt this film will coax many people to bother. Sorry.

Got a review you'd like to share? Techtite will post 2 of the best "guest" reviews received for any product, online, for all the world to see!