Did anybody have a Morocco-set rom-com starring Laura Dern and Liam Hemsworth on their 2024 bingo card? In that case, congratulations, even when the ensuing movie is a limp, chemistry-free excuse for the 2 actors to go to a sequence of aspirational locations and get a pleasant Netflix paycheck. Dern, a nationwide treasure, could be counseled for her efforts in Lonely Planet, a made-for-streaming film about an writer, Katherine Loewe, who travels to a writers’ retreat to complete her novel after a breakup. It’s there she meets Owen Brophy, an investor (or one thing) who’s the boyfriend of younger novelist Lily Kemp (Diana Silvers). What ensues is a sequence of scenes forcing the 2 characters collectively regardless that they don’t have anything in frequent and might’t conjure a single spark. 

Katherine arrives to the luxurious, distant retreat with out her baggage and with an isolationist angle. She’s there solely to write down, to not work together with the opposite writers, who she appears to treat with derision. Lily has introduced Owen alongside—a weird determination if you understand how writing retreats work—even if he doesn’t get pleasure from journey and is all the time on the cellphone making offers. By happenstance, Katherine and Owen find yourself caught on a dusty street in a broken-down automobile after a day gallivanting round Chefchaouen. They join, though it’s unclear over what, a disconnect that’s unrelated to their disparate ages. Owen and Lily change into increasingly more distant as the times cross, together with her humiliating him throughout a literary sport (he doesn’t know who Pip from Nice Expectations is, which ought to be humiliating if he ever graduated from highschool). Katherine and Owen change into increasingly more drawn to one another, and the viewer turns into increasingly more disinterested. 

Lonely Planet, from award-winning author and director Susannah Grant, ought to add as much as one thing compelling. It’s bought lovely settings and principally features as a journey commercial for Morocco. The premise is first rate and Katherine is a relatable character who appears at residence in a rom-com. However Hemsworth, who has all the time struggled to conjure fascinating emotion onscreen, can’t convey Owen to life. He’s only a handsome man who desires to guard the individuals who make investments with him (or one thing). What Katherine sees in him is totally unclear, though Dern does her finest with the script she’s given. When the pair lastly do get collectively, in one in all movie historical past’s most uncomfortable intercourse scenes, you don’t wish to root for them. A greater model of this film is Katherine falling in love with the recent retreat employee who is continually discovering her someplace quiet to work. 

After all, regardless of these hiccups, Lonely Planet appears destined for Netflix’s High Ten. The algorithm is aware of what persons are going to look at and the coupling up of Dern and Hemsworth is not possible to disclaim. It’s a must to see what occurs, even when you already know the tip outcome isn’t going to win anybody an Oscar. The film isn’t essentially unhealthy—it’s simply picket and unconvincing, each attributes that apply to many romance motion pictures of the previous that we nonetheless watch and reasonably get pleasure from. Dern deserves a greater rom-com with a greater co-star. She’s all the time compelling and it’s clear she could possibly be a profitable main woman in a film like this (proving, after all, that age is irrelevant with regards to love and to Hollywood). Katherine is trying to find inspiration throughout her time in Morocco and, in the meantime, Dern ought to seek for a greater undertaking. 

‘Lonely Planet’ is streaming on Netflix now.