“Leave the World Behind” is an unsettling thriller featuring a series of unexplained phenomena. Director Sam Esmail (“Mr. Robot”), adapting Rumaan Alam’s novel, keeps audiences as clueless as the characters as strange things keep happening. The ambiguities are intriguing, but they also can be so vague that viewers may stop trying to sort out why or what they might mean.
The film opens with Amanda Sandford (Julia Roberts) informing her husband Clay (Ethan Hawke) that she rented a fabulous house by the beach for an impromptu vacation. Her speech about wanting to get away from people — “because she “f**king hates them” — is pointed, amusing and typical of her sardonic nature. They pack their kids, teenage Archie (Charlie Evans) and tween Rose (Farrah Mackenzie) into the car and head off to Point Comfort.
However, the family’s day at the beach becomes a nightmare when a massive oil tanker runs aground. What is worse, they return home and find there is no wifi or TV. How will Rose see the last episode of “Friends” she has been binging?!” Apparently, seeing a deer in the yard may not be the good omen, that Clay says it is “according to Meso-American mythology.”
But things get a bit stranger when G. H. Scott (Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Myha’la) turn up in the middle of the night. G. H. claims he is the owner of the house and because that there was a blackout in the city, he hopes he can spend the night with the Sanfords. Amanda, acting like a “Karen,” is skeptical of these strangers, but Clay encourages the Scotts to make themselves as home, as it were. G.H. may not have his wallet with his ID, but he does have keys to the locked top shelf liquor cabinet and makes a mighty fine cocktail.
“Leave the World Behind” dwells on the tensions between the Sanfords and Scotts in ways that address race without actively naming it. These moments ratchet up the anxiety as the strangers try to find common ground to confront an unexpected and unwelcome situation. G.H.’s comments are validated when Amanda momentarily sees some news items on her phone about the blackouts, and a suggestion that hackers are at work. (She also sees some gibberish before it disappears.) The TV also indicates a national emergency but no further details about what is happening emerge.
When Clay drives off to get a newspaper and some answers, he encounters a frantic woman (Vanessa Aspillaga) yelling in Spanish before a drone overwhelms his car with red flyers. Archie and Rose go explore a cabin in the woods, and an insect bites Archie. G.H. tries to get a satellite phone, but it is inoperable. These scenes are compelling, and there is a growing sense of urgency of that becomes more unnerving as the story progresses.
Esmail films “Leave the World Behind” in ways that emphasize the abnormality of what should be normal. He uses overhead shots and camera angles and plays with focus to displace or disorient viewers. There are shots of guns that suggest violence will happen, and scenes featuring animals — herds of deer or flamingos landing in the pool — that are discomfiting. When the Sanfords try to drive away, they encounter a pileup of cars in one of the film’s more intense sequences. One character suffers a terrible affliction. Even the music, by Mac Quayle, adds to the power of what is happening.
But “Leave the World Behind” builds slowly to a small denouement, not a big awesome moment, an approach that may frustrate viewers looking for answers. It is best to just appreciate each odd scene for what it is.
Some of the film’s most engaging moments are the character-driven ones. G.H. and Amanda have a drink, and she apologies for her rudeness, and they go dance. Ruth and Clay vape weed by the pool and have a revealing chat. There is still some animosity between Ruth and Amanda, but a scene where G.H. and Clay seek medical assistance from Danny (Kevin Bacon), shows how the guys assist each other as a simple request soon turns into a standoff.
“Leave the World Behind” repeatedly suggests a powder keg is going to blow, and characters raise their voice to a scream, yet mostly the film is more sinister than scary.
Julia Roberts makes Amanda unlikeable, but she defends her behavior by always doing what she thinks is right for her family. Ethan Hawke registers in a much lower key, which counterbalances Amanda’s shriller moments. As G.H., Mahershala Ali is all class, but he keeps an air of mystery about him that forces viewers to recalibrate what is true. In contrast, Myha’la injects Ruth with a spikiness that makes her endearing, especially when she speaks her mind.
In support, Kevin Bacon has a memorable scene as Danny offers some candid advice to G.H. and Clay, and both Charlie Evans and Farrah Mackenzie acquit themselves well as Archie and Rose, respectively.
If the point of Esmail’s film is how people treat each other, especially during times of crisis, he lets Amanda’s early remarks about hating people echo in many of the film’s scenes. But in addressing an impending apocalypse, the filmmaker does not create great stakes. The film wants audiences to connect the dots between the characters and the episodes, adding morality or questioning authority. But “Leave the World Behind” invites viewers to just let it wash over them, absorbing the content without engaging deeper.
Esmail gives G.H. various speeches to download information to Amanda or Clay, but it is far easier to align with Rose, who just wants to watch “Friends” because it makes her happy. This may be the film’s point — that society is far more interested in distracting ourselves than paying attention to critical political matters (e.g, climate change). Therefore, we will be unprepared for the apocalypse and devastation that is likely to happen.
That may be a viewpoint as cynical as Amanda’s take on people, but it is the one certainty that “Leave the World Behind” offers.
“Leave the World Behind” debuts Dec. 8 on Netflix.
