Entertainment

People are raving about this new Netflix movie

By Wieke Veenboer | #!31Wed, 13 Dec 2023 09:30:34 +0100+01:003431#31Wed, 13 Dec 2023 09:30:34 +0100+01:00-9Europe/Amsterdam3131Europe/Amsterdam202331 13am31am-31Wed, 13 Dec 2023 09:30:34 +0100+01:009Europe/Amsterdam3131Europe/Amsterdam2023312023Wed, 13 Dec 2023 09:30:34 +01003093012amWednesday=9#!31Wed, 13 Dec 2023 09:30:34 +0100+01:00Europe/Amsterdam12#12-13-2023#!31Wed, 13 Dec 2023 09:30:34 +0100+01:003431#/31Wed, 13 Dec 2023 09:30:34 +0100+01:00-9Europe/Amsterdam3131Europe/Amsterdam202331#!31Wed, 13 Dec 2023 09:30:34 +0100+01:00Europe/Amsterdam12#

There is a new (well, new since December 8) movie on Netflix and given the star-studded cast, I'm surprised it hasn't been announced with more fanfare. Don’t Look Up was announced very grandly back then, but it probably had just a bit more stars than Leave the World Behind, although it does have quite a bit in common: in both films, the world literally goes down the drain.

In Leave The World Behind shine Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke in the lead roles. I really like it, Julia Roberts in a somewhat more serious role, because she can do that really well. In this film, she plays Amanda, who is married to Clay (Hawke). Together with their two children, they rent a luxury villa in the middle of nowhere, and from then on, everything goes wrong.

Two strangers knock on the door: G.H. Scott (played by Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Myha’la), who claim that it is their house. So the two families are stuck with each other, but the oddities don't stop there.

On the news, they hear that the entire United States is ‘under cyberattack’ and they have to try to survive in the most bizarre circumstances. I'll give you a very small spoiler: the ending is intense and made many viewers quite angry. It's a bit of a case of you either love it, or you hate it, but I personally could appreciate it. You definitely won't see it coming, I dare say.

There is one downside, and that is a significant plot hole in the film that viewers are now going off about. Read further at your own risk; it's better to watch it first before you get worked up about this too.

Although I must say that people are making a big deal out of it, while I honestly think it's not that bad. Here it comes: in the film, Amanda's daughter is watching Friends on an iPad, like so many people around the world. Only Julia Roberts, who plays her mother, had a role in Friends as the date (and former classmate) of Chandler Bing, and that can't possibly be, that it exists in the same universe.

Okay, the creators might have chosen a different series in which Julia Roberts preferably didn't have a role, but I find the term ‘plot hole’ a bit exaggerated. It certainly doesn't take away from the fact that this is really a movie you have to see.