Film Leave the World Behind, a thriller about a family vacation that gets upended, debuts on Netflix December 8. Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke play a couple that rents a home for the weekend with their children. Then two strangers show up, a father, played by Mahershala Ali, and a daughter, portrayed by Myha’la, mentioning a grave cyberattack and claiming the house is theirs.
They are allowed in, and weird stuff starts to happen. “The two families reckon with a looming disaster that grows more terrifying by the minute, forcing everyone to come to terms with their places in a collapsing world,” according to Netflix.
Sam Esmail directs.
Rumaan Alam wrote the novel that inspired the movie, which was released in a limited number of theaters November 22.
Esmail created USA Network drama Mr. Robot. He and Roberts worked together on Prime Video series Homecoming.
Leave the World Behind is produced by Esmail Corp and Red Om Films, and executive produced by Higher Ground Productions, the production outfit of former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama.
Reviews for the movie range from good to so-so. The New York Times said, “Though the main cast are accomplished, beautiful and intermittently interesting, they feel out of place in a movie that ought to have been a lot more scary, or a lot more subdued. Here, they feel stranded.”
CNN called the movie an “apocalyptic thriller with a foot so firmly planted in reality, those who stream it might not sleep for days. Edgy, unsettlingly paranoid and genuinely clever, it’s a logical continuation of the conversation writer-director Sam Esmail started with Mr. Robot.”
RogerEbert.com, meanwhile, said, “Similar to other disaster flicks, this film worms through oddball characters, takes interest in the disintegration of society, and the tension that arises from disparate people pushed to survive with each other. But Leave the World Behind struggles where it matters most, fashioning real stakes to accompany the turmoil.”
Leave the World Behind is rated R and runs for two hours and 18 minutes.
