“There is no going back to normal.”

We’re not immediately sure why Amanda (Julia Roberts) casts open the New York apartment curtains to waken her husband Clay (Ethan Hawke), an easygoing and appropriately named malleable man with a professorial background. He tags along though, says he’s down for whatever, and only asks “why today?”. It’s because Amanda is overworked and overrun with stress, and despite working with and for others, the film’s open ends with her lamenting just how much she fucking hates people. Leave the World Behind sets up the dichotomy of the kind Clay and the misanthropic Amanda, and uses the characters as different reactions to the outside world in times of duress. Some invite you in, and others want multiple forms of identification before opening the door. This flawed film earns its hysteria and paranoia throughout, even if they emotionally register as very little in the end.

Into the car the Sandford clan go, heading towards a rental home that sells itself as a dream destination where you can “leave the world behind.” How fitting. Clay drives and listens to a baseball game broadcast while Amanda rides shotgun. The eldest Archie (Charlie Evans) tries texting a girl named Taylor, and Rose (Farrah Mackenzie) sits in frustration as her current streaming episode of Friends freezes on her tablet. Later on they arrive, and the place looks like the kind of modern home that would be featured in Architectural Digest. The kids head towards the pool, Clay tries to open the locked liquor cabinet, and Amanda heads to town for groceries. It’s not a bad start to a little improvised getaway. But a rap comes at the door late at night, and outside are G. H. Scott (Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Myha’la), asking to be let in to their home. They’re fleeing the city, and maybe even more.

When it’s not resorting to preachy and totally phony dialogue, the film is at its best when it shows us the different sides of these people, despite how fleeting those moments are. How the calm aren’t always cool and collected, how the uptight can unwind over wine and a record, and how what matters most to some might seem insignificant to others. Combine that with Tod Campbell’s dizzying cinematography and you get a film that’s visually appealing, even though it’s overlong and at times cumbersome, and that fatal flaw falls on the hands of director Sam Esmail. The movie has a message, balances its tone, and leaves us wondering what exactly is going on. But that’s not enough. Esmail rose to fame with his time as showrunner for Mr. Robot, and here he tackles similar material adapted from the kind of novel that seems like it would have been better suited as a limited series. The script is already structured in sequenced parts, and more time would’ve allowed for proper cliffhangers and more in-depth character development. It seems backwards to say, but I imagine this 2 hour and 18 min film resulting in a better viewing experience as 6-8 episodes of 45 minutes.

Many of the nightmare scenarios presented here are no dissimilar from journalist Ted Koppel’s must read 2015 book Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath. Our power grid can easily be manipulated by outside interests, and when it’s at its most interesting and devastating, Leave the World Behind shows us how little so many of us care about world issues and how different generations handle turmoil. Some go looking outside and try to contact neighbors. Some focus on looking inwards and searching for fulfillment from easy salves, much like the final episode of Friends found on physical media during a blackout. But where do you turn from there? Esmail’s adaptation of Rumaan Alam’s novel poses important questions, but the story loiters around too often to let the plot take hold. At least we get to watch Julia Roberts hilariously scream at a massive herd of CGI deer. For that I am thankful.

“No one is in control. No one is pulling the strings.”

Rating: 3 out of 5