Laura Dern and Liam Hemsworth from “Lonely Planet.” Anne Marie Fox/Netflix
Does anyone have a Moroccan-set romantic comedy starring Laura Dern and Liam Hemsworth in their 2024 bingo card? If so, congratulations, even if the resulting film is just a limp excuse for two actors to visit a series of coveted destinations and earn big Netflix paychecks with no chemistry. Masu. Dern, a national treasure, will be praised for her efforts in Lonely Planet, a streaming film about Katherine Loewe, a writer who visits a writers’ retreat to finish a novel after a breakup. There she meets Owen Brophy, an investor (or something) who is the boyfriend of young novelist Lily Kemp (Diana Silvers). What follows is a series of scenes that force the two characters together, even though they have nothing in common and are unable to conjure up any spark.
Lonely Planet ★1/2 (1.5/4 stars)
Director: Susanna Grant
Author: Susannah Grant
Starring: Laura Dern, Liam Hemsworth, Diana Silvers, Younes Boucsif, Adriano Giannini, Rashida Brachni
Running time: 94 minutes
Catherine arrives at a luxurious, secluded retreat with no baggage and an isolationist attitude. She’s there just to write, not to interact with other writers, who she seems to look at with derision. Lily brought Owen with her, even though she doesn’t like to travel and always does business on the phone. This is a strange decision for someone who knows how writing camps work. Coincidentally, after a day of driving around Chefchaouen, Katherine and Owen end up stranded on a dusty road in a broken-down car. It is unclear what caused this, but they have a bond that has nothing to do with their age difference. Owen and Lily become more and more estranged as the days go by, with Owen humiliating Owen during a literary game (he doesn’t know who Pip from Great Expectations is). It must be humiliating if you graduated from Katherine and Owen become increasingly attracted to each other, and the viewer becomes increasingly indifferent.
From award-winning writer and director Susannah Grant, Lonely Planet promises to be a fascinating film. It has a beautiful setting and basically acts as a travel advertisement for Morocco. The premise is decent and Katherine is a relatable character who would feel right at home in a romantic comedy. But Hemsworth, who has always struggled to evoke captivating emotion on screen, can’t bring Owen to life. He’s just a good-looking guy who wants to protect the people (or whatever) who invest in him. Dern does his best with the script he’s given, but it’s completely unclear what Catherine sees in him. When these two finally get together in one of the most disgusting sex scenes in movie history, you can’t help but root for them. A better version of this movie is that Katherine falls in love with a sanitarium employee who always finds her a quiet place to work.
Of course, despite these issues, Lonely Planet seems destined for a spot in Netflix’s top 10. Algorithms know what people watch, and Dern and Hemsworth’s coupling is impossible to deny. Even though we know no one will win an Oscar in the final result, we’ll have to see what happens. This movie isn’t necessarily bad, it’s just corny and unconvincing, and both traits are true of many romance films from the past that we still watch and moderately enjoy. Dern deserves better romantic comedies with better co-stars. She’s always been charming, and it’s clear she could be the leading lady in a movie like this (proving, of course, that age is irrelevant when it comes to love and Hollywood). Katherine is looking for inspiration during her stay in Morocco, so Dern has to look for a better project.
“Lonely Planet” is available on Netflix.
