Movie Review: THE ABANDON

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: July 19th, 2024 / 02:29 AM

THE ABANDON movie poster | ©2024 Lionsgate

Rating: R
Stars: Jonathan Rosenthal, Tamara Perry, Regis Terencio
Writer: Dwain Worrell
Director: Jason Satterlund
Distributor: Lionsgate
Release Date: July 19, 2024 (theatrical); July 30, 2024 (VOD)

THE ABANDON is a fairly engaging science-fiction film that is mostly set in a single room. Not to worry – the scenery doesn’t get boring. Under Jason Satterlund’s direction, there is a sense of propulsion and suspense as the room keeps changing its configurations, gravity, and magnetism.

THE ABANDON isn’t all minimalism, either. We begin in a war zone, with tanks and artillery continually firing and planes dropping bombs. On the ground, things are harrowing, as U.S. soldiers come under heavy attack.

After seeing his captain die, Miles Willis (Jonathan Rosenthal) is shot, falls backward, and sees a light brighter than the falling ordnance. He blacks out.

When Miles wakes up, in terrible pain from his gunshot wound, and sees he is in a room where the walls, floor and ceiling are all gray squares. “ABANDON” is written upside-down on one of the wall squares.

When Miles looks again, the word “ALL” has been added. The word “HOPE” is visible when he looks a third time. There is more writing on the floor.

Then the room rotates, one wall becomes the floor, the ceiling becomes a wall, and so on. Miles is agonizingly tossed around, but ultimately ends up on the floor. Some of his belongings, however, are stuck to the walls and ceiling.

Ultimately, Miles is able to reach someone on his phone. This is Damsey (Tamara Perry), who at first is highly suspicious that Miles is who he claims to be. A third person (Regis Terencio) sometimes breaks through on the call.

Both Damsey and the Iraqi man sound just as terrified as Miles feels. As Miles and Damsey communicate, they try to figure out where each of them is, why they’re there, and what the symbols that appear on and disappear from the walls, ceiling and floor mean.

Writer Dwain Worrell has come up with a solid premise for a film that takes place largely on one set, primarily carried by one actor. Our curiosity increases with each twist, figurative and literal. Actor Rosenthal keeps us persuaded and engaged.

The less mathematically-inclined audience members may not be able to follow all of Miles’s and Damsey’s hypotheses, which rely on equations in places. The filmmakers are careful to help us understand what it all ultimately means, but (at least for this reviewer) there are moments where the characters’ discoveries need to be taken on faith rather than comprehension.

Director Satterlund keeps the environment unpredictable and dangerous, and has us rooting for the connection between Miles and Damsey.

THE ABANDON is a little trippy, but it also has strong imaginative concepts that are conveyed with enough impact to be memorable.

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