Stephen Gaghan's Abandon is not so much a whodunit as a who's-doing-what-to-whom.

Katie Burke (Katie Holmes) is a graduate student whose prospects with a powerful conglomerate look promising indeed.

Katie herself has finally bounced back from a traumatic experience two years earlier.

She had been swept off her feet by Embry Larkin (Charlie Hunnam), a rich, rebellious arts major. The very day they had planned to fly off to Europe together, Embry disappeared. Just when she thinks she's put this painful abandonment behind her, Wade Handler (Benjamin Bratt) a detective turns up on campus. He's been assigned to look one last time at the events surrounding Embry's disappearance.

No sooner does Handler appear on the scene but Embry resurfaces and he appears to be stalking Katie.

Katie is supposed to be a kind femme fatale because every man who comes within arms reach falls madly in lust if not in love with her.

Though Katie fails to notice, fellow student Harrison Hobart (Gabriel Mann) is so smitten with her, it's suggested he's capable of doing anything to stop others from getting the love denied him. It's clear to the audience if not immediately to Katie that her psychiatrist David Schaffer (Tony Goldwyn) is planning to make an amorous move.

Even Handler finds himself drawn to this mysterious and vulnerable young woman.

The ending won't likely come as that much of a surprise to fans of this genre.

Though Handler is a recovering alcoholic, this is familiar ground for Bratt after his stint on Law & Order.

Hunnam plays Embry on one note, but that may be more the requirement of the script than a comment on Hunnam's ability.

The movie soars or sinks on Holmes' shoulders because this is her film.

To Holmes' credit, the stronger Katie gets, the creepier Holmes makes her, showing that there is much more to this young woman that first meets anyone's eyes.

(This film is rated PG)

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