Spoilers were not hired for this one.
Sometimes you watch a movie so bad that you wonder if people know how to make movies anymore. You’d think feature films based on novels would know how to tell a story, this is not the case here. I have not read the original source material, but I’m just judging this iteration/adaptation as is. And you can probably guess it’s so not my cup of tea because… Okey, pass the scalpel and let’s start the dicing already.
Leave the World Behind (2023) was written and directed by Sam Esmail based on the novel of the same name by Rumaan Alam. To insist, I am not reviewing the novel here. High-strung Amanda Sandford (Julia Roberts) decides to book a vacation out of the blue with husband Clay (Ethan Hawke) and their teenage children Archie (Charlie Evans) and Rose (Farrah Mackenzie), leaving the city behind for a country getaway place found in Airbnb. The country home is a certified mansion. All is good until G.H. Scott (Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Myha’la) show up, identifying themselves as the owners of the place and letting them know that they’re going to need to crash with them because…
Well, that’s the thing. Something is going on with the internet, the phones, transportation, etc. Here’s where the movie does go through setting up events that are cued with tense background music and skewed angles. It’s all borrowed from horror film language to explain something is awry. A tanker runs aground. Deers congregate in the garden. A plane falls to the ground. Now, I’ve just spoiled the film for you – hook, line and sinker. The film is setting up suspenseful moments and then nothing. We go to another suspenseful moment on the next setting.
It doesn’t work because it doesn’t really move on from the setup. Yes, there’s social commentary but if falls shy of actually delivering a critique. It just presents a conversation starter but doesn’t follow through. And it does exactly the same, or rather it doesn’t do anything with or past its initial premise. It’s not that this premise evolves into something unintelligible. It’s that we don’t get to see where the story goes. It just ends. It’s only the setup. The train of thought never leaves the station.
Not recommended. I am pretty sure some audiences might grab some value out of the suspense and the barebones social critique but this feels like a one-act movie. A little more introspection and/or character development would have done wonders if the entire apocalipse-hinting-theme would’ve moved to the background. As it is, it might be one of those films lauded by some and panned by others. Not worth a watch since we’re not given even a hint of a payoff. It’s like it’s always stuck in second gear.
That will do for now.
Never Think Impossible 