‘Leave the World Behind’ Review
While presenting itself under the pretense of being a mystery thriller, those familiar with Sam Esmail’s Mr. Robot series are probably going to watch his latest film, Leave The World Behind, with some prior knowledge of what to expect. However, what makes Leave the World Behind interesting is that its mystery is spawned from everyday protagonists whose disconnect from society and complete attachment to technology is an obstacle to solving their own problems. While its satire feels pedestrian and its mystery ultimately lacking, Esmail crafts an engaging enough narrative propped up by captivating performances and, for better or worse, a fully tongue-in-cheek glimpse of a future for those enslaved by technology’s firm grip.
One of the big hurdles to get over early on though, is that Amanda (Julia Roberts) is a terrible person. At first, she seems relatable as she exclaims to her husband, Clay (Ethan Hawke), that she “hates people” and so books an AirBnB on Long Island to get away from the bustle of the city. It becomes clear that Amanda doesn’t just hate people though: she’s kind of a bigot (and a bit uneducated too, at times). This is accentuated by her refusal to believe that a Black man could own such a nice home on Long Island, when the family vacation is interrupted by the arrival of the Airbnb host, G.H. (Mahershala Ali), and his daughter Ruth (Myha’la), seeking refuge for the night. Network signals crash, deer start encircling the vacation home, and other strange occurrences begin popping up while tensions rise from Amanda’s own prejudices, confusion around what’s happening outside of Long Island, and armchair hypothesizing about technology’s role in everything.
While the parents are trying to figure out what is happening that has caused a massive blackout and no wireless signal, their children are even more lost on what to do with themselves. Rose (Farrah Mackenzie) just wants to finish the last episode of Friends but with no internet and a dependency on streaming, she’s in a predicament that can’t be solved in time. Meanwhile, Archie (Charlie Evans) is fixating on Ruth, filling in the role of a bored and horny teenager who can’t rely on porn sites when there’s no internet. They’re typical kids on a vacation spurred on by their parents, reluctantly forced to come along but dependent on computers and phones to get them through the boredom as opposed to enjoying the quiet time.
These small problems that form because of what’s happening in the world around them highlight Esmail’s focus on the dependency we have on technology but the lack of understanding we have about how effectively it can be weaponized. It’s a very black-and-white depiction of new technology as a blessing and a curse. There’s no nuance to it, whereas Esmail’s screenplay tries to nuance Amanda’s character, despite the fact that it’s mostly irrelevant to the point of the film. Every thrilling aspect of the movie is centered around technology and the helplessness that current society feels when forcefully disconnected. Amanda represents none of this, she’s just out of touch and needs to be disconnected to learn how to stop hating people. The film never resolves that in any meaningful way, she just becomes a little more attached to people she would otherwise have ignored, largely out of a need to survive.
Where Leave The World Behind is more interesting is in its spectacle and how the cause of it being unknown is more terrifying than seeing it unfold. That’s the mystery element, and Esmail doesn’t seem too preoccupied with explaining it all away but wants you to always be guessing whether one person’s answer is better than another. The inclusion of a conspiracy theorist (Kevin Bacon) lays bare Esmail’s intentions to keep the answers murky. He’s an individual who has an answer for everything, all of which is able to hold some credence because the answers cannot easily be found through a search engine. Without Google, who is to say who is right and wrong? Typically, it’d be common sense, but what happens when common sense isn’t really all that common anymore? There’s something inherently intriguing about not knowing the answers, and the way Esmail’s script situates each character in their own haze of confusion is more interesting than it has any right to be for a film that is making a point but remains elusive about the machinations that illustrate it.
There is also a slickness to Leave The World Behind that often engages audiences without any real purpose. Robotic camera movements provide no real depth to the film itself, instead creating a further distance from the film’s thesis. It’s stylish, and the title cards that segment the film into five parts are equally intriguing, but they are also somewhat devoid of any meaning. Again, the same can go to the performances which are generally well done, especially the main four of Roberts, Hawke, Ali, and Myha’la, but their characters are so unremarkable that you see them more as the actors than you do the characters. It all leads to a film that is bleak but hollow in its execution, much like an episode of Black Mirror if it was done through the lens of M. Night Shyamalan (specifically later-era Shyamalan with Old and Knock at the Cabin). Except Esmail doesn’t quite realize how Shyamalan’s characters are often pivotal to the plot and mystery.
Leave The World Behind looks great on paper and when drilling down to its technophobia, there’s something fascinating to uncover, even if it’s a bit of a rehash of Esmail’s Mr. Robot schtick. A technically competent film that has something potent to say about society’s frustrating disregard for humans during enslavement to technology, it’s also a movie muddled by what it chooses to accentuate. Is there anything satisfying in watching two wealthy families struggle to make sense of their situation? Not really, which is why the screenplay feels so dependent on its satire landing - it needs to be relatable, and by satirizing our addiction to technology, it does its job. Incidentally, it also shows just how little its characters matter to the mystery it has crafted.
