Leave the World Behind

Available on Netflix

An air of intrigue pervades Sam Esmail’s Netflix thriller, in which Julia Robert and Ethan Hawke’s idyllic family getaway is interrupted by a father (Mahershala Ali) and his daughter (Myha'la) bearing news of a blackout, the cause of which is unknown. Unfortunately, Esmail’s adaptation of Rumaan Alam’s novel does not entirely capitalise on its curious premise, although it is, for the most part, an effective imagining of humanity’s end time.

The game performance of Leave the World Behind’s cast is certainly a big reason for that, although Robert’s turn as a hopelessly cynical and delightfully passive aggressive Karen undoubtedly steals the show. Esmail and cinematographer Tod Campbell, as well as their production team, also lend the picture a chic sheen that differentiates it from what audiences might typically expect from other features of a similar tone.

However, while Leave the World Behind casually explores narrative undertones such as our universal overreliance on technology, it ultimately suffers from the same shortcomings as many other apocalyptic features, which is a lack of dramatic payoff. Esmail builds suspense effectively over the course of a gratuitous two-hour plus runtime, but the final act serves as little more than a misanthropic ‘eat the rich’ epitaph that is yawningly familiar by this point.

While this anticlimactic conclusion does not sully what came before it, you do sign off from Leave the World Behind with a slight sense of unfulfillment, which is a shame given the abundance of talent involved.