LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND. (2023) BASED ON THE NOVEL OF THE SAME NAME BY RUMAAN ALUM.
DIRECTED/SCREENPLAY BY SAM ESMAIL.
MUSIC BY MAX QUAYLE.
DISTRIBUTED BY NETFLIX.
STARRING JULIA ROBERTS, ETHAN HAWKE, KEVIN BACON, MAHERSHALA ALI AND MYHA’LA.
REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
‘I FUCKING HATE PEOPLE.’
This is one of my favourite ever Netflix films. I’ve watched it three or four times already and will definitely watch it again. It’s an American apocalyptic psychological thriller film part-produced by Higher Ground Productions, the company founded by the Obamas.
Julia Roberts is phenomenal in it. She’s been my favourite mainstream actress since the early ‘Nineties when I first saw her in SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY with Patrick Bergin, and I still love her today.
This movie is something she can really get her teeth into as well, as opposed to the type of character she plays in frothy, bubbly romcom films like PRETTY WOMAN and RUNAWAY BRIDE, proving that she has great acting chops as well as her trademark good looks which are ageing beautifully. Her hair and legs and face are all still as lovely as ever, and she hasn’t gone down the plastic surgery route either which bodes well for them.
She plays Amanda Sandford in LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND. One weekend, she and her husband Clay and their children Archie and Rose leave New York for a break in a magnificent summer home rental with a swimming pool, access to a beach and a nearby small town, plenty of local wildlife (namely deer) and just a general feeling of being somewhere picturesque where you’re getting-away-from-it-all.
My favourite scene in the whole movie is what happens with the gigantic oil tanker when they go to the beach. I love big spooky ships anyway, and this scene is fantastic. It’s the first thing to suggest to the viewer that something’s not quite right.
By the time we notice that the local wildlife are behaving strangely and that the owners of the rental house, the elegant George Scott and his mouthy daughter Ruth, have returned in the middle of the night pleading a ‘black-out’ as their reason for so doing, we’re pretty much convinced that something sinister is afoot.
The house Wi-Fi is not working so no-one can use their phones or computers. Also, Rose Sandford cannot watch the last ever episode of FRIENDS, which is super-important to her. Most frightening of all, the TV is displaying a warning from the EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM. That only happens when the end of the world is imminent…
Planes are dropping out of the sky, the very thing people were worried about back in 1999. Remember Y2K, or the Millenium Bug? Self-driving cars are crashing into each other and blocking up the freeway, so the Sandfords can’t leave the area and go home, much to their frustration.
Ear-splitting high-frequency noises make Archie’s teeth fall out in a gruesomely grotesque scene that you won’t forget in a hurry. The words ‘hackers,’ ‘cyber-attack’ and ‘coup d’etat’ get bandied about…
Amanda, who definitely wears the trousers in her marriage, doesn’t trust the newcomers George and Ruth at first, but the more that bad things happen, the more she realises that George is likely to be of much more use to them in an apocalyptic-style crisis than her husband Clay, a self-admitted ‘useless man.’ She and George even have a strong sexual attraction to each other, but they’d feel guilty about their respective spouses if they acted on it. Awww.
A very trim and fit-looking Kevin Bacon of FOOTLOOSE fame plays Danny, George’s belligerent, gun-toting survivalist neighbour. He’s been expecting this kind of scenario, or something like it, for a long time now and he’s ready for anything.
With a houseful of food supplies and medicines, will he give George and Clay the antibiotics they need for the now gummy Archie? Who does Danny think is responsible for the chaos and confusion that’s going on…? He’s got some theories if y’all wanna hear ’em…
Rose goes missing as well towards the end, which prompts Amanda and Ruth to go looking for her in the deer-filled forest. They find more than just deer and so does Ruth…
The score contributes hugely to the jittery, unsettled and suspense-filled feel to the film, and so do the unusual upside-downy sideways-y camera angles. This is now one of my Top Ten End-of-the-World-slash-disaster-slash-alien invasion-slash-survival films, on a list (in no particular order) that includes the following:
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW- 2004.
2012- 2009.
RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR- 2006.
CONTAGION- 2011.
CONTAINMENT- 2015.
INDEPENDENCE DAY- 1996.
WAR OF THE WORLDS- 2005.
SIGNS- 2002.
ALIVE- 1993.
THE IMPOSSIBLE- 2012.
The list would also include a load of old black-and-white B-movies like INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956), etc. They’d be in a category of their own because there are so many of them.
Why am I so fascinated by films like this? The sheer scale of some of the catastrophes is what draws me to disaster films, in the same way probably that a lot of us love watching monster movies like JAWS, KING KONG, GODZILLA, JURASSIC PARK/WORLD, etc. Also, I think we like to watch this stuff happening to other people in a voyeuristic kind of way while hoping against hope that it never happens to us…!
Anyway, do try to watch LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND if you can. It’s still on Netflix and it’d be one hell of a way to celebrate this May Bank Holiday.
sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris 