Leave The World Behind. Movie Review.

"Leave The World Behind" stars Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Kevin Beacon and Mahershala Ali and is directed by Sam Esmail. The movies plot is an attempt to make sense of today's basic amenities of technology breaking down as the characters desperately try to figure out why.

The problem with this movie, and there are many is that the audience cannot grasp the full crux of this movie while watching it, only to led to disappointment at the movies conclusion. What was billed as the top movie on Netflix, it is weak in its plot and awfully slow in the movement structure.

In the beginning, wife Julia Roberts tells her husband Ethan Hawke that she has booked a vacation in a swanky Long Island home that has the amenities of a top notch B&B but more secluded. The family of four leave their middle class Brooklyn apartment for a well appointed home. The trip promises to be a nice getaway for their son and daughter. Amanda (Roberts) seems to be an easy going, warm lady who genuinely loves Clay (Hawke).

When they arrive at the vacation destination is when all hell breaks loose, (both for them and the plot). It seems that their daughter Rosie (Farrah Mackenzie) is the most observant person of the bunch, (she is also the youngest). She can't help noticing the deer that flood the back yard where they are staying. This is just after the family excursion to the beach where an oil tanker washes up on the beach. Seemingly undeterred by this catastrophic event, the family comes back to the house where they realize that the T.V. is out and so is their cellular service.

The family still seems pretty calm which is odd because a deafening high pitch sound-wave has almost driven them into insanity. At this point the family is a little concerned but not in panic mode. The children seem more concerned about not being able to watch T.V. or play video games. The parents are more interested in what trending supper they will have and what wine would be best to drink.

The movie, which has great cinematography and sound gets more confusing when the owner of the house shows up unexpected and uninvited. George 'GW" Washington (Ali) and his bratty daughter, Ruth (Herrold) ask if they can stay the night. George is a wealthy financier of some sort (we never really find out what he does for a living). Ruth is a know-it-all who is young and has no career, nor any idea of what she wants to do. What she is, is an unlikable person whom we cannot feel one iodide of remorse for. It is particularly here that the director misses the mark; we actual revile this girl.

Further compounding the story, we have Kevin Beacon as a mercenary type who want to help Clay's son who has lost most of his teeth due to what is going on. All the cryptic music cannot pull this movie in, however. It never keeps us on edge the way that it was intended to. Rather than save the movie and bring it to a respectable conclusion, the dialogue between the adults is spoken in riddles and takes us nowhere. When all the Ev's start crashing on the Long Island Expressway, it makes for good cinematography and yet it contributes nothing to the story.

With A list actors like Beacon, Roberts and Hawke, Esmail has these actors going about the motions rather than having them and this movie hitting high gear with emotions running amuck. These actors never really get fired up about anything- even when their worlds are crumbling in.

Jeffrey Epstein, Barrack Obama, Michelle Obama, Julia Roberts, Kevin Beacon, Ethan Hawke, Bill Gates, Jimmy Kimmel, Oswald Patton, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Rob Reiner, Chelsea Handler, Cher, Ben Afflick, Jennifer Lopez, Oprah, Harvey Weinstein, Tom Hanks, Robert DeNiro, Stephan Hawking, Kevin Spacey, George Stephonapolus, Katie Coric, Woody Allan, Alan Durshowitz, Robert Maxwell, G. Maxwell, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.