It’s becoming a bit of a running gag that Netflix’s highest-profile projects never tend to find much favor among critics regardless of the talent assembled on either side of the camera, but the more often you hear a joke, the less funny it becomes. Despite being utterly stacked on all fronts, Leave the World Behind is shaping up to be the latest disappointment from the streaming service.
Of course, based entirely on its easily-marketable premise and ridiculously talented roster of talent, the literary adaptation is going to be a huge hit when it premieres on Nov. 22. And yet, the first wave of reactions have hardly been enthusiastic, which isn’t even a surprise at this stage when Netflix more often than not fails to maximize the riches at its disposal from both a budgetary and performative stance.
Let’s not forget that we’re talking about an apocalyptic thriller written and directed by Golden Globe-winning Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail, with two-time Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali and one-time Oscar victor Julia Roberts joined by four-time nominee Ethan Hawke and Kevin Bacon, never mind a certain Barack Obama serving as a producer.
The story finds a family vacation on Long Island being rudely interrupted by a pair of strangers carrying ominous warnings of a mysterious blackout, plunging the makeshift unit into a crisis as the world begins to look as though it’s crumbling all around them.
In any other hands, you’d expect Leave the World Behind to score rave reactions from all corners, but the irony is that nobody should be surprised in the slightest that its status as a Netflix original means there was always a high chance it would underwhelm.
