‘Leave the World Behind’ review: An enthralling apocalypse now from Sam Esmail

At the end of Rumaan Alam’s consuming 2020 novel “Leave the World Behind,” about a wealthy Black couple and a working-class white family thrown together during what may be the apocalypse, you are left with questions.

They’re not so much of the variety of “Where does humanity go from here?” — although that would be a reasonable thing to ask, as Alam paints an impactful if also vague vision of the future in his final paragraphs — but more along the lines of “How would I have behaved in that situation?”

That’s also true of “Mr. Robot” creator Sam Esmail’s excellent adaptation of the same name, which this week debuts on Netflix after a brief run in select theaters.

As the writer and director and a producer of the film, Esmail has his wildly creative hands all over “Leave the World Behind,” which is concerning for a bit as the wild camera angles and movements that helped give the mind-bending “Mr. Robot” its edge threaten here to distract from the desperate emotions of the narrative and performances of its talented leads. Fortunately, though, Esmail gets in his own way only here and there, his gift for pulsating storytelling winning the day.

One morning, as the sun rises over New York City, Amanda Sanford (Julia Roberts), is packing clothes for herself and her husband, Clay (Ethan Hawke), both of whom have had tough years professionally. As Clay slept and she couldn’t, Amanda rented a beautiful beachside home in Long Island for them and children Rose (Farrah Mackenzie) and Archie (Charlie Evans) for a few days beginning this day. Having brought Clay a cup of coffee to help win him over on the idea, she recounts her experience while watching the aforementioned sunrise and all the people on the streets below it scurrying about to make something positive of the day.

“I felt so lucky to be a part of that,” she says. “But then I remembered what the world is actually like, and I came to a more accurate realization: I (expletive) hate people.”

(“Leave the world behind,” read the rental listing, which sounded good to her. However, she picked the day when there would be no escaping the world.)

At the house that night, as they are unable to get cable, internet and cellular signals, they hear a knock at the front door, which alarms them. There stand a Black man, G.H. Scott (Mahershala Ali), and his young adult daughter, Ruth (Myha’la). (In the novel, Ruth is G.H.’s wife and older, this being Esmail’s most significant change for the screen.)

G.H. claims this is his house but acknowledges that it is highly unusual for an owner to show up during a rental period. New York City has suffered a blackout, he says, and after he and Ruth attended a symphony performance, he didn’t think his knee could handle the 14-floor climb to their apartment. The house seemed like the safest place for them to be, he says, and he offers to refund half of their money in exchange for allowing them to sleep in a basement living space.

This all seems reasonable to Clay but anything but that to Amanda; she has a counterpoint for every piece of evidence Clay cites that the Scotts are on the level. Amanda also immediately butts heads with Ruth, who believes their request to be entirely reasonable.

The next morning, the concerns among the four adults begin to grow beyond their unfamiliarity with one another, as they get a few drops of information about what may have happened and witness the first of the resulting effects. (Amanda and Clay work to keep Rose and Archie out of the loop so as not to scare them.)

“Leave the World Behind” is a well-acted movie from beginning to end, but it’s never better than when Ali (“Moonlight,” “Greenbook”) and Roberts (“Pretty Woman,” “Erin Brockovich”) share a scene. Their chemistry is on display long before the highly intelligent and sophisticated G.H., who often seems to know more than he’s saying, and the distrustful and generally angry Amanda stop butting heads.

Meanwhile, Hawke (“Training Day”) is solid as the affable Clay, who has an alarming experience with a Spanish-speaking woman when he ventures out alone to try to gather information in town, and Myha’la (“Bodies Bodies Bodies”) impresses playing a character whose layers are slowly pulled back as the film progresses.

Kevin Bacon also makes an impression in the film’s final act as Danny, a local contractor who had worked on G.H.’s home but may not be so helpful during what may be a new chapter for humankind.

Although spiritually similar, the film’s ending differs from that of the book and feels a tad trite, with Esmail taking a tiny detail from the novel and making much more of it here. Still, the blunt-force trauma of Alam’s National Book Award-nominated tale remains intact.

That “Leave the World Behind” offers so many questions and few answers — at least of the easy variety — means it probably isn’t for everyone, but it should be experienced by many.

‘Leave the World Behind’

Where: Netflix.

When: Dec. 8.

Rated: R for language, some sexual content, drug use and brief bloody images.

Runtime: 2 hours, 18 minutes.

Stars (of four): 3.5.