Television rating|The new Lonely Planet from the screenwriter of the Erin Brockovich hit movie presents beautiful landscapes and a “journey to yourself”.
Lonely Planet. Netflix.
★★
AS established, has been in romantic comedies on streaming services for the past year the time of middle-aged women.
In addition to romcoms, the relationship between an older woman and a younger man is told by, for example, an indie comedy that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival Between the Temples (2024) and Nicole Kidmanin starring erotic thriller Babygirl (2024), which will be released in Finnish cinemas in January.
So we can talk about a phenomenon. Editor of Vulture magazine Rachel Handler launched it in August succinct name: milf cinema.
Netflix’s new romantic drama Lonely Planetin can be lumped into the same group despite the fact that the main character does not seem to be a mother.
MOROCCON the movie that takes place is directed and written by a blockbuster movie by Erin Brockovich (2000) known as the screenwriter Susannah Grant. The main character is an Oscar winner Laura Dernwho plays a successful author named Katherine Loewe.
Grant and Dern’s collaboration promises that Lonely Planet would be a higher quality movie than the usual Netflix crap. It remains a promise.
Of his marriage recently divorced and struggling with her new novel, Katherine travels to Morocco for an exclusive writing retreat to write in peace. At the retreat, she meets a handsome, much younger man, Owen (Liam Hemsworth), who has ended up on a trip with his girlfriend Lily (Diana Silvers) on the wing. Lily quickly became a young literary sensation when her first book unexpectedly became a hit.
Working in finance, Owen knows nothing about literature and feels like an outsider while Lily flourishes. Katherine is only interested in finishing her novel, not mingling with colleagues. As outcasts of the retreat, Owen and Katherine come to terms, and the end is known.
Lonely Planetia is marketed as a romantic drama rather than a comedy, although it leans heavily on romcom clichés. The film is romantic escapism fueled by a postcard-like stream of images from Morocco.
There are golden sunsets, historic amphitheatres, bustling bazaars and idyllic countryside with goats. There is a close-up of laughing children and squeezing fresh orange juice.
All of this is pleasant to watch, but that’s about it.
Owen’s and the tension in Katherine’s relationship falls short despite the hot sex scene, but the worst part is how the movie tries to juice Eat, Pray, Loven (2010) I meet a spiritual “journey” to oneself.
With its flat life instructions, the film tries to be a more in-depth description of humanity than the average romcom. In the end, it’s as profound as a fridge magnet’s meditation.