Leave the World Behind review: Julia Roberts stars in a ‘timely’ and ‘chilling’ thriller

Leave the World Behind review: Julia Roberts stars in a ‘timely’ and ‘chilling’ thriller Netflix Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke are convincing in the suspenseful, entertaining Netflix film, Leave the World Behind, an adaptation of Rumaan Alam's apocalyptic novel, writes Caryn James. The possibilities hovering over Sam Esmail's suspenseful, apocalyptic Leave the World Behind are cyberattacks, rogue AI, nuclear annihilation and climate change, but also plain old-fashioned human evil. Esmail's adaptation of Rumaan Alam's 2020 novel adds a playful Hitchcockian spin and the starry cast of Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke and Mahershala Ali to create a psychological thriller about family, technology and life in the 21st Century. Leave the World Behind Director: Sam Esmail Cast: Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Mahershala Ali, Myha'la Herrold Run-time: 2hr 21m Release date: 22 November in the US; on Netflix from 8 December Many of the characters' fears are totally relatable, playing off the anxious feeling of being cut off from communication.