Leave the World Behind (2023) Review!!

Synopsis – A family’s getaway to a luxurious rental home takes an ominous turn when a cyberattack knocks out their devices, and two strangers appear at their door.

My Take – Who doesn’t enjoy a good apocalypse story? Especially when it translates into a version of terrifying, far-fetched, and yet hauntingly believable events on the screen. Add to that an incredible cast and even an average perception of these events become something extremely watchable.

Understandably, seeing actors like Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali and Ethan Hawke attached to this latest from writer-director Sam Esmail, known specifically for his series Mr. Robot (2015–2019) and Homecoming (2018–2020), its hard not to get all excited.

And excitement that easily carries one through the first act of this psychological thriller that comes from Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground banner. Which contains all visual ambition of a Blumhouse feature and the writing flair of a M. Night Shyamalan feature, a combination that provides a tense, riveting experience that had me glued.

But then the remaining time of the 141 minutes starts to feel like a slog to get through with very little payoff.

Based on Rumaan Alam‘s 2020 novel of the same name, the film starts with lots of promise for a thoughtful, tense thriller, with director Esmail delivering a cocktail of prevalent issues, like technological woes, misinformation, and minute racial aggressions, with sleek style, however, his heady combination of action and character development fails to deliver particularly well.

Even the ending doesn’t make up for the all build up. Despite the early thrills, its gradual loss of momentum leeches any suspense inherent in the film’s conceit, resulting in an apocalypse flick that is fine, but nowhere near as insightful as it wants to be.

The story follows Amanda (Julia Roberts), a misanthropic middle-aged woman who wakes up one day and decides to take her husband, Clay (Ethan Hawke), and their two kids (Farrah Mackenzie and Charlie Evans), a little girl obsessed with making it to the last episode of Friends and a teenager obsessed with what teenagers are obsessed with, for a weekend getaway at a large Long Island house she rented.

The getaway is off to an ominous start when an oil tanker runs aground on a nearby beach. Following that catastrophe, they face the ultimate inconvenience: The Wi-Fi at their beautiful rental home goes down and amid signs that something isn’t quite right, they maintain their comforts, stopping for Starbucks after their near-miss with the boat, then grilling burgers and hanging out by the pool.

However, the real reckoning begins with the arrival of two strangers, George “G.H.” Scott (Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Myha’la), at the middle of the night, claiming to be the owners of the rented house. The two were in New York for a symphony performance when a massive blackout hit. And rather than risk being stranded in the city, they chose to come back home. Immediately, Amanda’s racist impulses and Clay’s cowardice blow away the first layer of civility.

The film is indeed well crafted. Tod Campbell’s cinematography, Mac Quayle’s music, and the visual effects all comes together to realize a frenetic and thrilling vision. The first time the two families meet, you can literally feel the sense of tension in the air.

The scene where Archie and Rose go into the woods, Amanda and Ruth have a conversation, Clay tries to get a newspaper, and George goes out to look for supplies—that is edge-of-the-seat stuff. There are several other sequences like that where you can’t help but tense up. But the middle half sucks all the energy out of the narrative.

Director Esmail uses the awkwardness of their situation to examine issues of class, racial stereotyping, modern parenting and the spread of disinformation. And yes, he does this by forcing them to chit-chat with each other after clumsily dividing them into smaller groups.

There’s also a strange disconnect between the film’s wonderfully chilling set pieces (the family’s attempt to drive off Long Island is derailed by a particularly unsettling encounter with an autonomous vehicle) and a seeming lack of urgency when there are literal planes falling from the sky.

To that end, any and all attempts at social commentary just feel bizarrely inappropriate, no matter how smartly and thoughtfully delivered they are by the cast. Add to that director Esmail never decides what his apocalypse is taking aim at. We see a lot of deer, falling satellites, and self-driving Teslas going rogue.

There’s hackneyed discussion about racial tensions, climate change, the Chinese, the Iranians, the Koreans, and pretty much everything else he could chuck in. Don’t expect any answers from its truly baffling conclusion either. Director Esmail wants you to expect that there’s more to this phenomenon and there’s a conclusive answer around the corner, but then he veers into ambiguous territory to say that when the apocalypse is imminent, it’s pointless to search for the reason why it’s happening.

Performances wise, Ethan Hawke and Mahershala Ali try to make the best of their roles, while Julia Roberts truly makes her character despicable. Myha’la is just snarky throughout. In comparison, Farrah Mackenzie is a force to be reckoned with, while Charlie Evans excels in one of the hardest scenes of the film. Kevin Bacon seems to be playing himself in a small but very effective cameo. On the whole, ‘Leave the World Behind’ is an unfulfilling apocalyptic thriller despite the presence of a starry cast.