‘Lonely Planet’ Review: This Year’s Crop of Age-Gap Romances Gets a Banal New Entry
For every “Babygirl” (sexy, smart) and “The Idea of You” (sexy, fun), there is a “A Family Affair” (not sexy not smart, not fun). At least, that’s how it feels in the year of our lord 2024, which has been positively (well, mostly) beset by age-gap romances. And they’re not slowing down just yet! This week: Laura Dern and Liam Hemsworth (sure) enter the fray with Susannah Grant’s “Lonely Planet.”
While Grant’s film nails certain elements necessary to the genre (like casting a pair of likable, capable stars who generate some real heat), the film is also prone to falling into just as many bad habits and limp tropes synonymous with big screen romance. Setting the film in a lush locale helps a bit — “Lonely Planet” mostly takes place in Morocco — but the overly glossy look and feel of the travel-centric feature tends to push it into awkwardly anonymous settings. This could have been set anywhere and felt the exact same way, and that’s bad for a movie that hinges so much on the seductive power of travel.
More from IndieWire
It doesn’t necessarily start there, either. Bestselling author Katherine (Dern) isn’t so much seduced by the idea of traveling as the idea of getting away from her regular life. Newly homeless (her missing luggage adds a fine point to that) and desperate to finish her latest book, she’s decamped from America for a writers’ retreat in Morocco so lavish and so accommodating, you nearly have to wonder what the catch is (like so much else in Grant’s script, there is not one). Despite the stunning setting and the deep pool of fellow writers (there’s a Nordic crime writer and a pickled French novelist and a sassy old grand dame, and more), Katherine isn’t a team player, and she’s not at all interested in cocktails, excursions, or chats by the pool. She needs to write.
Alas, she’s not the only person at the retreat who feels like the odd man out: There’s also Owen (Hemsworth), a private equity dude who has accompanied his long-time girlfriend Lily (Diana Silvers) to the retreat, where the newly minted It Girl of beach reads hopes to start on a second novel. Many of Grant’s supporting characters are given precious little grace on the page (and even less on the screen), and it’s Silvers who catches the worst of it. Her Lily initially scans as sweet, gracious, and nervous — enough to make audience members who know what’s to come with Katherine and Owen wonder how exactly we’re going to do away with her — before Grant turns her into a raging bitch because plotting demands it.
We’re meant to understand Owen feels a bit left out because he’s not a writer, and while, yes, the rest of the group love to yap about their work, their questions are exceedingly banal, mostly related to when someone wrote their book or how long it took them. Perhaps Owen feels left out because these people are so dreadfully boring. Even a demeaning game of literature-based charades doesn’t help any of them scan as super-intelligent (one of the answers is “The Kamasutra,” for chrissakes) and only serves to make us root more for Owen, who is at loose ends the entire time.
This may sound like a nattering bit of table-setting, and boy, is it, because while “Lonely Planet” clocks in at a scant 94 minutes, much of it is dedicated to laying on thick various subplots, machinations, confusions, tropes, tricks, and more. (We have not even touched upon Owen’s issues with his job, Katherine’s recently ended relationship, or the incredibly out-of-place affair Lily is obviously about to have, but that’s all there too.) We have to get through burst pipes, a broken-down engine, blank Microsoft Word pages, open-air market strolls, and one terribly embarrassing hashish-laced dance party before landing on the actual point of (and the best part of!) “Lonely Planet”: the romance between Katherine and Owen.
Absolutely none of this is worth it without a central love affair that packs some heat and emotion, and Dern and Hemsworth deliver on that promise, even if it takes far too long to get down to it. Even that element has some questions, though. Oddly — and much like its Netflix brethren, “A Family Affair” — the age gap at the center of “Lonely Planet” isn’t so much a topic of actual conversation as yet another element that blithely orbits the rest of the action. The only indication that anyone has even noticed that Katherine and Owen are from different generations is a third-act mention by Katherine that temporarily upends things just as (ack!) they’re finally starting to take shape.
This delayed gratification does allow “Lonely Planet” to land on an upswing, the flush of Katherine and Owen’s finally consummated attraction still sparking, the expected plot movements all ticking quickly by. But what would this have looked like without all that plodding plotting? Definitely sexier, definitely more fun. Smarter, too.
Grade: C+
“Lonely Planet” starts streaming on Netflix on Friday, October 11.
Want to stay up to date on IndieWire’s film reviews and critical thoughts? Subscribe here to our newly launched newsletter, In Review by David Ehrlich, in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the best reviews, streaming picks, and offers some new musings, all only available to subscribers.
Best of IndieWire
Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Solve the daily Crossword
