Leave The World Behind Is Too Ambiguous To Pull You Into Its Apocalyptic Story
Leave the World Behind is a film adaptation of the novel of the same name written by Rumaan Alam. The film, written and directed by Sam Esmail, leaves much to be desired. In this rendition of the story, Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke star as Amanda and Clay Sandford, an advertising executive and a media studies professor, who live in Brooklyn. A tiresome misanthrope, Amanda exclaims to her husband that she needs a break from humanity. Before Clay can respond, she quickly tells him that she rented a house away from the city, where they escape for a short weekend with their teenagers — and they have to leave that very day.
Well, Amanda got what she wanted. They really do leave the world behind, as the house — or should I say a mansion — is in a desolate area placed in the woods, close to the beach with a stunning swimming pool, and it’s all within a Long Island town that’s a stone's throw away. The first day the family is there, they excitedly go to the beach. It’s a beautiful day, people are relaxing on the soft sand, and all of a sudden a ship becomes grounded. The Sandfords don’t seem to be bothered by this, but, it’s worth pointing out, their daughter Rose (Farrah Mackenzie) was sharply watching this ship the entire beach trip. From my perspective, Rose becomes the point person throughout the film, noticing bizarre occurrences before anyone else. She even tells her older, careless brother (Charlie Evans) that she feels as though no one listens to her, in which he responds: “You’re probably right.”
After the Sandfords watch a huge ship breaching the shore, they head back to the house to carry on with their vacation. This seems like metaphor for how our society moves on so quickly after every mass tragedy. Are we too desensitized? Possibly. The film starts to pick up when the doorbell rings in the middle of the night and a man named G.H. (Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Myha’la) show up on the doorstep. I need to give a quick shout out to Myha’la, because her performance was impeccable. They claim to be the owners of the house the Sandfords are staying in, but there’s a blackout in the city and they need to stay the night. Ali plays the earnest and calm G.H. well, so much so that I believed him right away. Meanwhile, Amanda remains untrusting of the duo.
Due to Amanda’s skepticism, it makes you question if G.H. and Ruth are really who they say they are. But when it becomes clear they are, the lingering unease of the film stops there. I felt as though I was searching for something more to occur during the entirety of the films run time. I could appreciate the message the film was trying to get out, but it seemed so blatant that my appreciation ended at just that. Rose yearns to see final outcome of her beloved series Friends play out, it literally becomes her mission as the world around her is literally falling apart. I get it, I get it, our generation is too consumed in media and technology. Nonetheless, even if the movie was trying to slight our generation for being obsessed with media, she ended up being the one to find the safety bunker because of said obsession… coincidence? Maybe not.
All in all, this movie felt more like a warning, as the Obamas were producers. There’s so much ambiguity with the film that it leaves a lot up to interpretation and ones imagination, but not in a way that’s desired. It didn’t leave me wanting more and I never felt like it was an apocalypse film that I could become immersed in. If the world was truly ending, I’d opt for a different film than this one.
Leave The World Behind is streaming exclusively on Netflix.
