Leave the World Behind

Netflix is fond of putting big-name actors in disaster flicks: Bird Box, Extinction, Don’t Look Up, White Noise. Now from director Sam Esmail comes the apocalyptic Leave the World Behind. He is best known as the creator, writer, and director of the USA Network television series Mr. Robot (2015–2019). I wish he had left this movie behind and focused on developing another hit T.V. series.

This fable is a meandering conversation without a coherent point. It begins with some potential. The account stars Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke as Amanda and Clay, a married couple who decide to take their kids Rose (Farrah Mackenzie) and Archie (Charlie Evans) on vacation. They check into a lavish rental home on Long Island. While relaxing on the beach, an oil tanker suddenly runs aground right in front of them. That’s weird.

Later, a dapper man portrayed by Mahershala Ali comes knocking on the door with his teenage daughter Ruth (Myha’la) in tow. They’re seeking shelter after a blackout strikes the surrounding area. George “G.H.” Scott claims to be the owner of the luxurious home the Sandfords are renting. Amanda is skeptical, while Clay is more trusting. The two families decide to awkwardly coexist — and survive — under the same roof. More bizarre things happen as the U.S. experiences a communications breakdown from what appears to be a cyber attack. Multiple driverless Teslas crash in a pileup, menacing herds of deer fill the backyard, and Archie’s teeth mysteriously fall out.

What is the cause? Sam Esmail’s screenplay — based on the 2020 novel by Rumaan Alam — is content to keep the viewer in the dark. The characters observe various things, but their conversations are neither insightful nor interesting. The whole experience is as if someone watched The Happening (2008) and substituted computers for the trees. That movie is the worst thing that M. Night Shyamalan ever directed. It was smug and pessimistic without offering solutions. Leave the World Behind tops it for sheer pointlessness. Near the end, Kevin Bacon shows up as a local named Danny. He offers some opinions, but his rantings are presented as the delusional musings of an angry conspiracy theorist.

I halfheartedly hoped that the big reveal in this cautionary tale would be that M. Night Shyamalan would show up and be exposed as the true director. There are no definite answers as to why these things transpire. However, we do witness from a distance that these technological blackouts have caused civilized society to break down. It ends with a gag — an amusing aside, but hardly worth the 2-hour and 21-minute circuitous trip it took to get there.

12-13-23