Abandoned

An pretty simple but suspenseful thriller that to me is very similar to Flightplan but set in a hospital. It had an very hitchcock like vibe to it as the innocent Mary Walsh who is played by the lovely Brittany Murphy what is tragically her last role is accused of being crazy when she reports that her boyfriend of 4 years is missing from the hospital and finds out that they have no record of him being there. This was a pretty basic movie when it came to action and it was almost borderline lifetime movie of the week to me but it was very watchable and kind of kept me on the edge of my seat guessing why this was all happening to her and the twist which I kind of saw coming from a mile away was pretty messed up but still pretty standard though. The acting was mostly on the weaker side but Brittany Murphy's performances always has this charm to them but you can sadly tell that her state of health wasn't good in this movie and it looked like they tried to hide it by putting a lot of makeup on her but her hair looked greasy and crusty it was tragic to see. Overall it wasn't the best movie ever and I've seen it done better before but if you like Brittany Murphy you should check it out because she pretty much saves the movie from completely sucking but don't expect anything out of the ordinary. More of a 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Although this film has not had the best of reviews, I decided to watch it for myself. I'm glad with my decision, as I was glued to the screen from start to finish and would say that it was not the disappointment as previous viewers had hinted.

I will admit that after a short while it was easy to guess what was going on with the plot, but even so I was still rather pleasantly surprised with the couple of twists that lay in store for me. I'm not convinced that some of the supporting cast were that great, particularly Scott Anthony Leet who I felt was rather 'wooden'. However, the main characters certainly got my vote.

It's rather sad that we wont be seeing any more of Brittany Murphy.

Both the storyline and the acting pick up as the movie goes on, thankfully. I gave it a seven which might be generous, because it would've been better had the movie kept the momentum throughout. There were a few times I was ready to give up early on, and I imagine others will be, but it's worth sticking with it.

Some of the acting was weak, but some of it gets better as the movie goes on, and the story starts to compensate.

Possibly the worst aspect of the movie was the main lead's make up. I have never seen ANYTHING so shockingly bad! (except Hush-hush Sweet Charlotte, but that was intentional and tied in with the character's persona). That make up crew (Simon Monjack, Claudia Londoño) ought to be fired. Seriously, I just could not take my eyes off her face for the entire movie because it was so appalling, and I was trying to figure out what on earth technique they were using that made it turn out so awful. Totally unprofessional.

This was Brittany Murphy's last film, she's quite elegant and captivating on the screen (I enjoyed her voice work on King of the Hill as well). It's a very weak movie overall; aside from Murphy and Pickett, the actors were deers in the headlight. I feel that if they incorporated the best friend character more (whether that friend was part of the conspiracy or if she worked to help get Mary out of the hospital) it would have helped keep things exciting.

There's honestly no reason the character should be placed on a 72 hour psychiatric hold, no hospital staff member established that she is a danger to herself or others. Being on anti-depressant medication seems insufficient to place someone on a psych hold.

RIP Brittany Murphy and Jay Pickett.

Her real-life death was tragic. Also sad her last movie was direct-to-video. It's a decent-to-good movie, but retreads grounds covered by many movies in the same genre. If it had struck out on it's own and paved new ground, or tried harder to be original the film could have been a better send-off for Brittany's career. All credit to the actress for a fine performance, especially considering she was gravely ill. It's far from Heath Ledger as Joker, but given the material she does a pretty good job. Interesting to note that she looked ill throughout the movie and I don't think it was an intended look. At times she was ghastly, sunken face black rings around her eyes. According to Wikipedia she was severely anemic (losing blood) which explains her paleness and ghastly appearance. She was also suffering from pneumonia.

Dean Cain does a fine job of playing her mysterious boyfriend, able to play the good guy well and leave you wondering about his motivations because he has played villainous roles since his Superman days. Mimi Rogers plays the hospital administrator well making you wonder if she is part of a conspiracy or just doing her job. Overall, this is pretty much a mystery and thriller movie. The downside is once the mystery is revealed (and it is done a bit too soon in my opinion)then it begins to retread many movies of the same vein, once I saw the big "reveal" everything that came after was standard formula and very predictable.

The movie is nice as a rental but I advise you rent it and not blind-buy it. If you like what you see it's a nice movie to have in a collection, not a must-buy, but if you like Brittany Murphy and want to own her last screen appearance then I recommend getting this. Had she not died it still would have been a decent movie, not great but worthy of seeing and maybe owning. I liked her outing in Across The Hall (and having just looked it up the rating for that was a 6 too but thought that was better than this). Maybe this is knocked down to a 5 because of a lack of originality and the acting in the latter half of the movie. I won't be surprised if the fan rating is higher based on her death.

It's a decent movie, but been rehashed plenty of times before (notably a lot of Ashley Judd 90's movies). It starts out well and keeps a good mystery going until one point in the film where you knew where everything was heading down a very worn path made by much better films like Double Jeopardy. Maybe I am overrating it due to the actress's death, but I kinda liked the movie. Read my review here -

http://www.movie-vault.com/reviews/abandoned-bluray/