Gone

A silly damsel-in-distress thriller that would barely pass muster as basic cable fare, Gone stars Amanda Seyfried as Jill, an emotionally fragile waitress whose claim that she was abducted by a serial killer but escaped his grasp a year earlier was dismissed by cops. Now, after returning from a stint in a mental hospital, Jill finds that her sister has disappeared. When the police refuse to believe Jill's story that her tormentor is back, she grabs a gun and goes off to save her sibling, a search that features ludicrously lucky breaks, a series of foot and car chases, and numerous split-second escapes, all leading to an absurd protracted finale in the woods. When the villain is finally unmasked (and his idiotic purpose revealed), most viewers will react with incredulity, especially since the revelation makes all of the red herrings strewn about earlier seem absolutely arbitrary (and casts serious doubt on the nemesis's actual competence in his work). The movie is apparently intended as some sort of feminist revenge fantasy, but it suffers from poor plotting and the fact that Seyfried is a bland, unconvincing heroine. Not recommended. (F. Swietek)