Is the new Netflix film “Lonely Planet” worth watching?

Netflix is ​​often king when it comes to releasing random movies with well-known actors without much fanfare, and that's exactly what happened with “Lonely Planet,” a new film starring future wizards Liam Hemsworth and Laura Dern.

You may be wondering if it's really worth seeing, but the answer is probably no. No, that's probably not the case, at least according to critics, and God knows Netflix won't give you any indication of that, aside from its “% Recommendation” system, which means nothing.

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

“A reclusive novelist arrives at a prestigious writers' retreat in Morocco hoping that the remote setting will solve her writer's block. There she meets a young man – what begins as an acquaintance develops into an intoxicating, life-changing love affair.”

So the idea here is that a young man falls in love with an older woman, and in this case Hemsworth is 34 and Laura Dern is 57. A loophole, but certainly not exactly scandalous. But critics are… not thrilled about it. Here is a sample:

• The Hollywood Reporter: “Neither boring enough to be painful nor funny enough to be compelling, it's just too boring to make much of an impression at all.”
• The New York Times: “The story isn’t that hot. At least the leads. That's not enough to make “Lonely Planet” a good movie, but maybe it's enough to get through all 94 minutes without clicking on something else instead. Perhaps.”

And since every third review is positive, here is one of them:

• Guardian: “It's better, more down-to-earth and more confident than expected, enough to overcome the clichés and occasionally clunky dialogue.” It's a mostly entertaining addition to the welcome over-40s subgenre, which sees desirable women as desirable subjects become.”

It's certainly possible you'll like it, but the overall consensus is that “Lonely Planet” isn't great, and it's a far cry from other top-notch Netflix original films that have come out recently, including “Rebel Ridge.” Different genres, of course. So make up your own mind.

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