3.5 stars (out of 5)
LONELY PLANET, the new Netflix romance featuring Laura Dern and Liam Hemsworth, will definitely make you want to plan your next vacation, stat. Set at a writer’s retreat in Morocco, there are gorgeous shots of the blue and white buildings, the food markets, and the lush villa that all the writers are staying in. The writers are there to enjoy, get some peace, and find inspiration, and Morocco is totally believable as a place to do all of those things.
Yet while this is visually a really stunning film, in general the movie as a whole feels underbaked. It keeps posing interesting questions, but then never goes deep enough to really explore the answers. Owen (Hemsworth) is a finance bro attending the retreat to support his up-and-coming writer girlfriend, Lily (Diana Silvers). Her newfound success with the publication of her first book has changed the dynamic of their relationship, and Owen seems uncomfortable in a beta role while Lily seems to feel like he’s becoming some sort of dead weight in their relationship. Avoiding her fawning over the other writers at the retreat, Owen seeks out time alone and meets Katherine, the most famous author at the retreat who is going through a painful divorce at home and came to Morocco only for some peace and quiet to finish her latest book. The two strike up a mutual interest, though again the potential to go deeper sort of stops there. What has made Owen so uncomfortable with the supportive role in his relationship with Lily, and how would a relationship with Katherine (who is clearly more famous than Lily) be different in this aspect? Katherine is also an older woman, which should be an interesting element to explore since her experience clearly would present a counterpoint to Lily who is newly famous in this world, but again, it’s never explored outside of Owen objecting to her calling him ‘kid.’ I’d also be interested in knowing how Owen presents a counterpoint to Katherine’s husband, and what she sees as new and fresh in him–which is again, left on the table. When Owen and Katherine first get to talking, Owen mentions to Katherine that he realizes he doesn’t like traveling because it sells a false promise that you can be a different person…only to realize once you’re back home that you’re the same. How does that apply to his relationship with Katherine, or even with Lily for that matter? Again, this feels like an interesting question to pose, but that’s as far as it goes.
As a result of this superficiality, what happens is that the third act conflict lacks weight and doesn’t exactly feel like it’s hitting on the core potential problems in Katherine and Owen’s relationship. From there, there’s no room for either Katherine or Owen to really grow as characters for their reconnection and HEA. Their conflict resolution is too easy and we’re again missing the ways in which their romance and experience in Morocco has pushed both of them individually and as a couple. All of this is sort of a bummer, because both Dern and Hemsworth are incredibly charming and do have chemistry that feels like it could be very solid with a deeper, more thoughtful script. But I think as is, LONELY PLANET has the feeling of a fun vacation fling–enjoyable but ultimately meaningless.
