Leave The World Behind Movie Review
Leave the World Behind is a 2023 American apocalyptic psychological thriller film, written and directed by Sam Esmail and adapted from a 2020 novel by Rumaan Alam. It was produced by Higher Ground, a production company founded by former United States President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama. The film premiered on Netflix on 8 December 2023.
The film is centred around a family who go on vacation to a luxurious rental home – to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Communications go down, no phone service, wifi is not working, tv has no signal – then two strangers knock at their door… things keep getting weirder.
The Good
Leave the world behind has a gripping atmosphere, masterfully building suspense and unease as it keeps you guessing on what could be possibly happening… The knock at the door reminded me of Knock At The Cabin an apocalyptic film by M. Night Shyamalan where the people who knock are more than they seem – and in this movie you are kept guessing if their midnight visitors are who they say they are.
Julia Roberts has a great deal of range from Pretty Woman to the Runaway Bride back in the day, in Leave the world behind she plays her most toxic character – a self-centred, biased, cynical and distrustful misanthrope who shockingly admits that she f***ing hates people in the opening act. But she’s not a hateful character just for just, over the course of her wordy monologues you get to understand her view of the world… humans are terrible.
Ethan Hawke who stars as her husband, a college professor, is a warm and understanding man, a refreshing counterbalance to their relationship… and of course, he too is not spared from showing that despite his open-mindedness he has his own moral failings…
Interesting aside watching this I kept thinking… he looking so much like Benedict Cumberbatch‘s Dr Strange.
There is a brief but thought provoking scene with Kevin Bacon who cameos as a survivalist – and kinda looks like an alternate world version of Ethan Hawke, uncanny.
Mahershala Ali is such a good actor you want to believe everything he says and not just in the movie but as if he is speaking about the world today in his epic monologues, as he reveals his speculations on what could possibly be happening.
That’s the thing with Leave the world behind – it seems to be delivering a message about how we are basically terrible and rely heavily on tech which leaves us disconnected, biased and delusional, making it easy to turn against each other because well, people are terrible.
The Bad
M. Night Shyamalan does it better… while this film carries an intrigue, you feel its 2 hours 18 minutes tick by ever so sluggishly, in a slow burn build-up that never quite amounts to any real answers only speculation and a vague ending.
The film doesn’t seem to focus on a grand idea or theme and instead just gives broad hints at larger societal issues and dialing down to a family drama.
The characters swear gratuitously, sure its an apocalypse or whatever, but the parents swear, the kids swear – very disturbing, or is it a reflection of how we cannot be anything but terrible to other people, when we cant be nice to our family?
Some critical explanations are left unexplored, like why are the deer and flamingos acting the way they were- If they were trying to tell humanity a message what was it, because I am not fluent in animal speak.
The Ugly
The movie tries to navigate a racial and privilege divide on how those with will only look after themselves and those without will be left to fend for themselves… each more concerned about theirs than anyone else’s worries.
This lands the movie with a pessimistic and cynical view of humanity, particularly Americans that they are so hateful and distrustful that they would turn on each other …if the internet stopped working.
There are a couple of blink and you miss it references such as a radio tuning into channel 1619 and a boat labelled as the White lion crashing into a beach— The White Lion was an English Privateer Ship which brought the first African slaves to Virginia in 1619. But these easter eggs are left unexplored and one wonders at their inclusion in the plot.
Final Thoughts
Leave the world behind is reminiscent of the disaster movie Don’t Look Up but darker and more serious. It is not meant to be entertaining, its meant to scare or shock you at the nature of humanity, at the fragility of the fabric of civilisation and how the decisions we make are often based on preconceived notions than fact or truth… plus how shockingly easy it is to cripple the world in this modern day era.
Fun Fact: The book the movie was adapted from is on Obama’s 2021 summer reading list.
Have you watched Leave The World Behind. Do we rely too much on our devices and the internet?
~B
Becoming The Muse 
Your thoughts.. if you will?