Review: Leave The World Behind

Official synopsis: A family's getaway to a luxurious rental home takes an ominous turn when a cyberattack knocks out their devices, and two strangers appear at their door.

Director Sam Esmail brought us one of the most interesting shows in the past decade or so in Mr. Robot and plenty of his style is evident here. And just like Mr. Robot, this film starts out very engaging then ends in the most underwhelming fashion.

I liked this film for the most part. Sure, some of Esmail's camera angles are annoying but I was legitimately engaged with the story and where it would go. So much so, that I started to get frustrated when a thread would be seemingly left without any resolution. Maybe the ending will work more for fans of a certain non-Esmail show that is mentioned several times throughout the film. 

The acting is a bit all over the place. Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke and Myha'la were very good. Julia Roberts and Charlie Evans less so. Farrah Mackenzie, who plays the daughter gets the short end of the stick because she's left to react to a lot of things happening around her, but no one bothers to talk to her about it. She remarks at one point that "no one listens to what I say" and that was a big part of why the movie wasn't better for me. Her character witnesses some very bizarre things that warranted more discussion, and it's just left up in the air.

I think this movie will work better for most because it's on streaming. I know if I had paid theater money to see this, I'd probably be a lot more critical, but instead since I watched this on Netflix. I can be okay with not liking all of it. I still think it's worth seeing, I just think it follows a lot of the trends of Esmail's previous work.

Grade: C+