@thearmag3ddon here with yet Another Netflix Original Movie Review You Didn’t Ask For (technically someone asked for this one…but STILL…I’m a giver. So….)
Just a heads up, there will be direct spoilers in this one. They really can’t be avoided. Proceed with caution and enter…if you darrrre.
I don’t want to call it a trend, but I’m noticing a troubling trend. It’s been happening for over two decades now, so it’s nothing new new, but I think it’s a thing that is defining suspense and thrillers from the Post Modern Movie Era.
There are some incredibly engaging, riveting, and intriguing films out there that plainly and simply do not stick the landing. It’s almost as if the burst of imagination to create the premise and then examine said premise might never actually be able to complete with an ending that is satisfying. Maybe.
I might want to blame M. Night Shylaman for this, because…why not? After inflicting the Happening on the world he deserves every bit of blame, even if it is misdirected. But there is, especially with suspense in many of these post-modern thrillers, a way of topping things off with a twist that actually really only functions as dropping its audience off of a cliff. Off the top of my head I’m thinking Gone Girl, High Tension, Mystic River (just a little bit) and the recent No One Will Save You. In fact, No One Will Save You’s ending is giving me the same “the ick” as Leave the World Behind, although the former makes me hate the bulk of it because of that ending, and here…I can kind of roll with it. It just felt….ehhhhh.
I imagine the feeling of it being an abrupt ending is mostly what folks will be talking about (some condemning and some defending) and for those who did not like it, likely it will color how they talk about this film. I have a theory that most people only really praise or hate a movie for how it ends regardless of what the first two thirds does or doesn’t do, so as time rolls by it will be interesting to see the conversation surrounding this.
In the interest of being fair, I will say that I absolutely loved MOST of this movie 90% of it in fact. 9%, the weird almost forced romantic tension backed by too on the nose late 90’s banger “Too Close” by Next, and the other 1% was literally the end. Other than that I was virtually on the edge of my seat, watching and wondering while the story unfolded.
Leave the World Behind is a suspense filled thriller that falls into a niche category of Apocalyptic stories I have come to enjoy over the years where we see the other side of government and systems collapsing. What do I mean? Movies such as Deep Impact, or Independence Day or World War Z show us the big boom larger than life spectacle, often with the government at the helm as they work to outwit, escape, and save the day. They have access to all information and the plot revolves around them working to solve said problem. The “quieter” side of this is Leave the World Behind and also films like Signs, #Alive, and The Night Eats the World, or the novel version (ONLY) of I Am Legend. These films show a side that is more personal and are often isolated responses to whatever catastrophe is happening. The characters featured in these stories rarely if ever know what is happening beyond their own immediate situation and mostly they are seeking to survive the chaos that encroaches as the world slowly collapses.
The more quiet apocalyptic films tend to be less narrative driven, and deal more with strange situations that don’t quite make sense because we the audience lack the context of the greater collapse. This is from whence we experience our suspense and thrills. And most often in the end there is no answer, but sometimes a reveal. Some stories do this supremely (I Am Legend) some seem to simply punt because, well we’ve got to do something? (No One Will Save You.)
The ending here in Leave the World Behind is somewhere in between the two of them. Nowhere near as revelatory as Legend, but nowhere near off-book as No One Will Save You. I suppose my main issue with it is that with a runtime of 2 hours and 21 minutes, did we really need all of that to simply “answer” what we mostly already knew? There was a much larger sense of mystery from within, and also a hint of mysticism with the deers which, the deers ended up being a big ol nothing in the scheme of what was happening anyway. And that’s sort of the problem with it. Like LOST, that one deer element anyway, enjoyed planting mysteries that had an unspoken promise to be relevant, but really it was only meant to keep you off balance.
It’s kind of a shame because I really really liked the movie up until the end. I think it’s just that it didn’t really tell us anything we already didn’t know. And the movie within was so rife with deep important lessons about the nature of humans without necessarily being preachy about it (for the most part.)
Still I think if you watch it, knowing that it is mostly an examination of something rather than leading you to a destination, you might enjoy it.
On the acting side of things, it was a joy to see some of my favorites either back on screen after not having seen them for a while, or just having them all together in what mostly was an incredibly well made and shot film. Erin Brockvich was great as an angry and slightly unlikable protagonist, Troy Dyers was a great somewhat ineffective patriarch, and Remy Danton anchors the entire thing in a role where he shines the most as a sensitive do-gooder who may or may not have ulterior motives. But doesn’t.
If you happen to find yourself in the I HATE THIS camp, maybe direct most of your ire elsewhere as 1) this was an incredibly made film from a visual perspective, and 2) it was adapted from a book which likely played out differently in its original medium.
I’m a moderately smart person (even though recently someone accused me of not having an education because I didn’t list them on my social media profile, so ok sure buddy) and I understand and acknowledge a lot of the symbolism of the film. The dots DO connect, I simply feel the sum, somehow is less than the whole. And to go back to the bit with the deers, often in story, something like this serves as a harbinger mostly. Purely symbolic. However it this film it needed and begged for an explanation that was a part of this world since it was actually very grounded in a reality that could conceivably happen.
Shout out to Barrack and Michelle though, on the low low warning us what’s in store for 2024. Elon Musk is probably blowing a gasket right now. Even if his company likely received a nice check from product placement.
My review might sound more harsh than it actually is as I do think it is mostly a good film. I think it’s the disappointment that it sets up a feeling that doesn’t satisfactorily lead to a thing. I’m not saying it has to be a happy ending. I am saying that it needs to feel like it fits. Again. I Am Legend. If you haven’t read it, read it. Then you’ll truly understand what I mean. Oh well. We’ll always have the Game of Thrones Finale. Which we can all agree was the greatest ending in the history of the universe.
/Sarcasm
I give Leave the World Behind 3 Season 3 Box Sets of Buffy the Vampire Slayer out of 5.
Or 3 Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon out fo 5. (Personally I’m a 2 degrees. Go me.)
Until the next review you didn’t ask for, @thearmag3ddon sighing off. (Yes…I sighed.)