I wanted to like Leave, I really did, but this tale of a young woman trying to trace her family roots ended feeling far too mediocre, and also surprisingly predictable. Although technically competent, it's the kind of thing that puts you off wanting to see anything else from either the writer or director.
Alicia von Rittberg plays Hunter, a woman who wants to find out why she was abandoned as a baby. She was left in a graveyard, wrapped in a cloth adorned with satanic symbols. Personally, I wouldn't want to know how that happened to me, but Hunter is different from me. She ends up in Norway, and eventually meets people who may have known her mother. Unfortunately, her mother is no longer around, apparently having been killed by Hunter's father (Kristian, played by Morten Holst). Digging around leads to some secrets being uncovered while people start to become more tense.
I have seen some people complain that this is just a thriller marketed as a horror movie, a criticism I don’t think is fair. But I am going to note here that this is certainly a mild horror movie, and not want to recommend to anyone after major scares or some blood and guts. It is a supernaturally-tinged mystery, and some may enjoy that approach to the material.
Sadly, I didn’t.
If I spent some time referencing the better movies that this called to mind then I would risk spoiling the third act, but let’s just say that we have seen this done many times before in ways that were much more entertaining. The trappings may be slightly different, with the Norwegian setting and some conversations touching on the (in)famous black metal scene over there, but the main plot beats are very familiar.
Writer Thomas Moldestad has given us some good stuff in the past (slasher movie fans will definitely want to check out the Cold Prey movies), and there's nothing in the script that is actually terrible here, but he certainly seems to be cruising on auto-pilot this time around. Director Alex Herron has a background made up of music videos and TV shows that focus on bands, but none of the expected style and flashiness you might expect from a music video director is here. That would usually be considered a good thing, and maybe something that Herron was very consciously trying to avoid, but it might have been a welcome addition here. The story isn't strong enough to carry the film without any standout touches or moments to support it.
Von Rittberg is fine in the lead role, although the fact that she looks quite a bit like Riley Keough was both a plus and distraction for me (maybe it's just me, I kept wondering if it WAS Keough in the main role, and wondering how the film-makers had convinced her to join them). It helps that her character gets to do more than stand around and look shifty (unlike the characters played by Stig R. Amdam, Herman Tømmeraas, and, of course, Holst). Ellen Dorrit Petersen also does well in a small role, and both Ragnhild Gudbrandsen and Maria Alm Norell deserve a mention, as does Clarence Smith (playing the understanding adoptive father of our main character).
Trying to maintain a sense of seriousness throughout, even when things seem to be crying out for some schlocky silliness, Leave will leave you cold and disappointed by the time the end credits roll. I would say it is a distinctly average film, but the fact that it could have been much better means that it feels worse than that. It may work better for people who haven't seen many other films in the same vein, but it won't work for most viewers. It's competent, as I said at the start of this review, but when have you ever been dying to see a film best described as "competent"?
4/10
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