Is Netflix’s New Movie, Lonely Planet, Worth Watching?

Netflix is often king of dropping random movies full of well-known actors with little fanfare, and that’s just what’s happened with Lonely Planet, a new film starring soon-to-be-Witcher Liam Hemsworth and Laura Dern.

So, you may be wondering if it’s actually worth watching, but it appears the answer is likely to be no. No it is probably not, at least according to critics, and lord knows Netflix is not going to give you any indication of that, outside of its “% recommendation” system that means nothing.

Lonely Planet is currently at a 36% on Rotten Tomatoes with a few dozen critic reviews in. That is definitely the lowest score for a Netflix original movie since the 15% Uglies a few weeks ago. There is no audience score in for the film yet, but we can head over to IMDB where Lonely Planet currently has a not great 6/10. This is written and directed by Susannah Grant, who wrote Erin Brockovich back in 2000, and a number of other films since. I really, really enjoyed her 2019 project Unbelievable, which she co-wrote with Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman. Here’s the synopsis of Lonely Planet:

“A reclusive novelist arrives at a prestigious writer’s retreat in Morocco, hoping the remote setting will unlock her writer’s block. While there, she meets a young man — what starts as an acquaintanceship evolves into an intoxicating, life-altering love affair.”

So, the idea here is a young man falls for an older woman, and in this case, Hemsworth is 34 and Laura Dern is 57. A gap but not exactly anything scandalous, to be sure. But critics are…not into it. Here’s a sampling:

• The Hollywood Reporter: “Neither dull enough to be painful nor fun enough to be engaging, it’s simply too bland to make much of an impression at all.”
• The New York Times: “The story isn’t so hot. At least the leads are. That’s not enough to make Lonely Planet a good film, but it might be enough to get through all 94 minutes without clicking on something else instead. Maybe.”

And since one out of three reviews are positive, here’s one of those:

• Guardian: “It’s better, more grounded and self-aware than expected, enough to overcome the cliches and occasionally clunky dialogue. It’s a mostly enjoyable addition to the welcome sub-genre about 40-plus, desiring women as considered, desirable subjects.”

It certainly is possible you may enjoy it, but on the whole, the consensus is that Lonely Planet is not great, and a far cry from other top-rated Netflix original movies that have arrived lately including Rebel Ridge. Different genres of course. So, make up your own mind.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.