Abandon: Critic Reviews

A competently made, mildly diverting collegiate thriller.

There's so little going on in the film that its title seems to suggest an action that audiences may be driven to take before the movie ends.

Consider the title your best advice. These 99 minutes roll by like 99 years.

It can't make up its mind whether it's a serious drama, a swoony romance, or a psychological thriller.

Hardly a nuanced portrait of a young woman's breakdown, the film nevertheless works up a few scares.

[The title's] unintentional effect is to presage the sense of torment the viewer experiences as he or she is buried deep inside the movie's unrewarding ramblings.

The movie finally did not satisfy me, and so I cannot recommend it, but there is a lot to praise, beginning with Katie Holmes' performance.

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.

... expands the horizons of boredom to the point of collapse, turning into a black hole of dullness, from which no interesting concept can escape.

Pic's structure and last-minute disclosures entirely betray any personal investment the viewer has made in this low-key yarn, which will cause audiences to feel ambushed and sullied at fadeout.

Gaghan ... has thrown every suspenseful cliche in the book at this nonsensical story.

Wretched, thrill-free thriller.

The title helpfully offers the most succinct review of it you'll read anywhere.

Credit this picture with an ambitious effort to dramatize an ineffable yet recognizable mood -- even if its ambition isn't quite fulfilled.

One of the most incoherent features in recent memory.

Comes across as exceedingly dumb, even when you consider that a lot of the rank stupidity is designed to facilitate the 'surprise' twist (ho-hum) that is telegraphed midway through the excruciatingly long 90-minute running time.

A highly schizophrenic movie that clearly wants to explore the lives of university students under stress their senior year but is forced to do so within a thriller format that requires spooky moments and malevolent ghosts.

It's a bad sign in a thriller when you instantly know whodunit.

A trite psychological thriller designed to keep the audience guessing and guessing -- which is not to be confused with suspecting -- until it comes time to wrap things up and send the viewers home.

It really is almost impressive how bad this is.

A flimsy and tedious thriller.