(2 stars)
Review by Jen Yamato
Dern exudes effortless cool as the chic, successful Katherine, who arrives newly dumped at a swanky Moroccan writer’s retreat intending to hide away from her peers and finish her overdue next book. (How quickly she hangs up on her agent’s deadline reminders and searches desperately for a quiet corner to work in, only to go blank with writer’s block, are some of the most painfully relatable depictions of writerhood in recent memory.) Owen is a low-level private equity guy tagging along with his girlfriend, Lily (Diana Silvers), whose hit beach read has launched her to literary fame, exacerbating the cracks in their mismatched relationship.
You wonder why either woman would be interested in a walking red flag with an inferiority complex who confuses Dickens with Gladys Knight and spouts lines like “2,500 acres of untapped coal is gonna be a solid investment” over brunch. Other than the fact that he looks like Liam Hemsworth, who tries his best to give Owen a winning interior life, the film fails to make a convincing case. (“I think you’re extremely bearable” is one of Owen’s flirtiest, supposedly swoon-worthy lines.)
Katherine may not be looking for a younger man in finance, but writer-director Susannah Grant’s script repeatedly forces them together against the backdrop of alluring North African locales. What’s meant to be a charming series of getting-to-know-each-other montages begins to give off an acrid odor of exploitation as the pair walk and talk through the historic markets and blue corridors of Chefchaouen; ooh and aah over the friendly locals thanklessly used as cultural set dressing for their “Eat, Pray, Love” escapade; and marvel at the transformative “new and exotic” life experiences they’re sharing in a foreign land that, for all it matters to the plot, could be swapped out for any other dazzling filming location with a decent tax incentive.
Grant, who earned an Oscar nomination for writing “Erin Brockovich” and co-created the gutting crime drama miniseries “Unbelievable,” has tackled off-center romances before (“Ever After: A Cinderella Story” and “Catch and Release”), but the most unconventional choice here might be the delayed gratification of having to wait until the final act to see how Katherine gets her groove back in one steamy, satisfying, wall-slamming rendezvous. In the meantime, cinematographer Ben Smithard photographs “Lonely Planet” in a pleasant, sun-soaked glow matched by Pinar Toprak’s lush and dreamy score — textures that lend more intoxicating romance to Katherine and Owen’s story than their superficial conversations about identity, purpose and his high school football career.
If it dared to subvert the expectations of the genre, “Lonely Planet” might have spun its premise into a more satisfying picture of modern sex and romance between a mature woman and her much younger lover. (Owen’s last name is “Brophy,” a perfect portmanteau of “bro” and “trophy,” suggesting a more winking edge than the film actually embraces.) Instead, this lethargic romantic drama forces chemistry where there is none and, worse, sells out its aspirationally cool, intelligent female protagonist with an endgame that she — and the luminous Dern — hardly deserves.
R. Available on Netflix. Contains strong language, sexual content and brief nudity. 96 minutes.
