The Facts:
Synopsis: A family’s vacation is upended when two strangers arrive at night, seeking refuge from a cyberattack that grows more terrifying by the minute, forcing everyone to come to terms with their places in a collapsing world.
Stars: Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Myha’la, Farrah Mackenzie, Charlie Evans, Kevin Bacon
Director: Sam Esmail
Rated: R
Running Length: 138 minutes
TMMM Score: (8/10)
Review: Julia Roberts is an A-list Hollywood actress who has reached a level of fame where she wouldn’t have to work again if she didn’t want to. That isn’t great news for her fans, like me, but it’s a part of stardom where you start to take notice of the roles these intelligent actors who have paid their dues, claimed their prizes, and cashed their checks DO take on because you know it must mean something to them. As she nudges close to the big 6-0 (amazing, I know), Roberts has demonstrated an affinity for projects with filmmakers and colleagues she trusts, those who can provide her an experience worthy of her time because, let’s face it, her name, her face, that million-dollar smile sells a whole lot of tickets.
Given her recent track record, it isn’t surprising to see Roberts turn up in a film like Leave the World Behind. From writer/director Sam Esmail (whom Roberts collaborated with for the first season of Homecoming on Prime Video), this Netflix adaptation of Rumaan Alam’s 2020 novel is another opportunity for Roberts to stretch herself, further removing the bubbly comedic lilt from her acting and bringing a coarser edge to her performance. Teamed with Ethan Hawke and Mahershala Ali (stepping in for Denzel Washington), the trio headline a tricky thriller that teases the terror of global apocalypse while always keeping you within arm’s length of a good rattle that hits a little too close to home.
Needing a break from the city fray and exhausted at the thought of another weekend droning ahead, New Yorker Amanda Sanford (Roberts, Ticket to Paradise) books a family vacation on Long Island. Something about the swanky and secluded home where they can all relax and, as the ad states, ‘leave the world behind’ spoke to her, and it doesn’t take much to talk husband Clay (Hawke, The Black Phone) into rounding up their two children and heading out. They can’t know by the time they arrive at the exquisite rental how accurate the ad’s slogan will be, but by nightfall, a knock at the door will disrupt whatever peaceful plans were in place.
The late-night visitors are G.H. (Ali, Green Book) and his daughter, Ruth (mononymous Myha’la, as much a scene stealer here as she was in 2022’s Bodies Bodies Bodies), and he’s the owner of the house who has returned early due to a blackout in the city. Without any place to stay for the night, the two have decided to return, much to Amanda’s suspicion and ire. Why drive back from the city to their home, though? Do G.H. and Ruth have another reason that they’ve returned so soon? Conversations between the two that only we hear suggest they know something the family doesn’t, and it quickly becomes apparent that both groups are willing to withhold information until more concrete trust is established.
To say more about the weekend events of Leave the World Behind would be as bad as some of the spoilers revealed in the trailer for the movie. I went into this film blind, and the less you know, the less you’ve seen, the better because your mind won’t be working ahead to put pieces together that may fit in a different direction than is apparent. Esmail successfully builds suspense by juggling multiple threads at once, bouncing between several characters on the precipice of danger, and taking the blood pressure of the viewer up incrementally. That works well once, but when he attempts to do it again later in the movie, the trick feels played out, even with a fair amount of abject terror thrown in.
Working with a small cast, Esmail can get a lot out of the performances without resorting to overly fancy camerawork or other flashy filmmaking distractions. The best, most suspenseful scenes often involve two people sitting across from each other just talking. Before you arch that eyebrow any higher, consider the caliber of talent involved (two Oscar winners, one Oscar nominee, and Myha’la, who is a formidable scene partner for any of them), and you form a picture of how Esmail can keep the viewer taking shallow breaths as we watch an unimaginable nightmare unfold in front of us.
Amanda and Clay’s children, Rose (Farrah Mackenzie, Logan Lucky) and Archie (newcomer Charlie Evans) could be seen as stand-ins for our society in how they respond to the creature comforts that start to vanish as the weekend progresses. Archie spends his time eyeing Ruth and ignoring his sister’s concerns over not being able to watch the last episode of Friends (Ruth, I feel you…). Ruth’s desperation to catch the NBC sitcom’s finale winds up driving us into a big finish that is haunting in context and hauntingly real in execution.
Peppered with bursts of active frights that pair nicely with Esmail’s talent for slowly creeping up your spine with a prickly dread you can’t quite put your finger on, Leave the World Behind is a sophisticated exercise in metered suspense. With Roberts again playing against type as a brittle woman forced to bend to a series of events she doesn’t have control over, the film sustains its pace with a moody energy and believable tension without sacrificing the intrinsic human reactions the situation would elicit.