Film Name: 断网假期 / Leave the World Behind
I thought the film was shot with enough suspenseful atmosphere to keep the viewer hanging on the edge of their seat from start to finish, wanting to see exactly what would happen in the end. With the internet, power and roads all down, my first thought was either a natural disaster (asteroid hit the earth, nuclear explosion, alien invasion) or a man-made disaster. I thought it was a disaster film, but as I watched it, I found that the plot involves racial discrimination, middle-class distrust of people, alienation of relationships, parents’ lack of understanding of their children, self-preservation of familiar neighbours, gradual speculation about enemy sabotage of the United States, and early access to resources and information of the upper class, and other social topics, eh? This is an American fable, isn’t it? The ultimate explanation turns out to be the overthrow of the current government by a certain group of people at the top of the United States in order to destructively destroy the American people.What the hell!
There’s the raw plot of GH and Amanda trusting each other by drinking and dancing together and Clay and Ruth (the black girl) talking freely by the pool and Ruth thinking that Clay must be trying to sleep with her and being honest enough to tell her father. It’s kind of amazing to hear 14, 16 and older kids talk to each other like it’s no big deal, and Amanda and Ruth go from arguing at the cabin to saving themselves from a deer herd, and they’ve cleared the air and don’t dislike each other anymore. The director used the lines to tell us that even though we hate and despise each other, we need each other and can’t stay away from each other. Give me a little wake-up call. Isn’t that what life is all about? You fight and have different opinions, but when you are sad and vulnerable, your family members are still each other’s support.That’s what the family is for. That’s what the family is for.
But the fatal flaw of this suspenseful film is that the key plot points are not explained at the end: what are the deer doing facing the people, is GH’s wife dead, are they saved? Are they saved in the end? The cellar the youngest daughter runs into is supposed to be the doomsday cellar the neighbours say someone’s family runs, but why isn’t anyone hiding in it? Are most of the Americans dead? There are no answers. In the end the little girl’s main concern before the end of America is the end of Friends, “No matter how fucked up the world is, what I care about most is the end of the TV show.”
The director has turned a disaster mystery film into an American social allegory in a raw way, why? Because the suspenseful atmosphere in front of the film is too good, a 2 hours and 20 minutes of film in one go, do not feel redundant, the way the camera shot to change angles is refreshing, although I said so many shortcomings in front of me, but now there is too much of a lack of quality suspense film, to catch a still watchable I’ll be satisfied.
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