You Should Have Left
universal
Adapted from the Daniel Klein novel, You Should Have Left is the latest Blumhouse production starring Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried. The former plays Theo, a withdrawn gentleman in introspective mood. Struggling with his past discretions as they continue to haunt his present, Theo is not a man with high self-esteem at this stage . His younger, more vivacious wife Sandy, played by Amanda Seyfried, is compounding his issues. Sandy is a respected actress in the adult film business with a very demanding work schedule. As Theo works on managing his demons with the aid of self-help audiobooks, his jealousy towards his wife’s occupational attentions prompts him to whisk Sandy and their young daughter away to a remote part of the Welsh countryside and stay in a luxurious and isolated property.
When Theo’s distrust and anxious behaviour builds the debates and arguments between the pair intensify. Alongside Theo’s paranoia towards his wife, are developed concerns towards his new immediate surroundings. Strange occurrences take place, and some baffling discoveries are made. Are all these anomalies just manifestations of Theo’s troubled mind or does the house really harbour sinister secrets and possibly a malevolent presence? Answers are provided in its conclusion, but the viewer is mostly left with more questions and unresolved narrative threads.
The lead actors do a reasonably accommodating job at holding the viewers' interest, since most of the film is concerned with their problematic relationship. However, the audience will feel somewhat abandoned as the feature arrives at its final act – the focus shifts into the mystery and horrors of the house, with a mind-bending and nauseating conclusion that resolves little of all that came before it. The difficulties of finding a balance between a coherent feature film and staying true to all aspects of the literature are evident here. The resulting mystery feels underwhelming and without real conviction which makes for a rather unsatisfactory conclusion to what was an engaging beginning and middle act.