From Stephen Gaghan, the Academy Award–winning writer of Traffic, you’d a directorial debut with grit, but the only thing edgy about this slogging suspense thriller is the title. Katie Burke (Dawson’s Creek star Katie Holmes) comes from a fatherless family with no money, yet in college she plugs along and gets top grades. Now she’s a burnt-out senior trying to land a job at an elite consulting firm. Then there’s the small matter of her former boyfriend, Embry (Charlie Hunnam), a rich prick who’s been missing for two years. The cops figure Embry has been thumbing his nose and soaking up the sun in some exotic destination. Eventually Wade Handler (Benjamin Bratt) is assigned the stale case, but after some inept poking around, he discards his objective in favor of playing father figure (and more) to Katie.

Gaghan also wrote the film, and he turns somersaults trying to keep the suspense level up. Is Katie delusional? Might Wade be motivated by guilt over an alcoholic past? And what about that dilapidated ghost dorm? It’s contrived storytelling at its worst — abandon this one while you have the chance. (99 minutes)