“Lonely Planet”: Subtle, thoughtful romantic drama

What it’s about Laura Dern and Liam Hemsworth fall in love in “Lonely Planet,” a love story set against the backdrop of a writer’s vacation in Morocco.

Dern plays the famous author Katherine Loewe, who suffers from a paralyzing writer’s block and with the end of a long relationship with a person who is generally referred to as “the sculptor”, stands on a personal crossing distance.

Owen Brophy von Hemsworth is not an author at all, but he accompanies the journey because he is the friend of the emerging Lily Kemp (Diana Silvers).

It turns out that this relationship is also on the brink, since Owen, a finance man and former athlete, cannot keep up with the highly trotting literary discussions and, panting, even reads.

Writer and director Susannah Grant is known for the Netflix miniseries “Unbelievable,” among other things.

MY SAY The challenge of a film like this begins to make it more than just one travel report, whereby the story serves as a thin pretext to show beautiful locations, and the actors apparently for the chance to work in such a place, commit to whatever the script offers.

“Lonely Planet” is largely on this lacquer test, even if it sometimes looks as if it seems more fascinated by the views of the desert, the extensive beaches and the luxurious resorts in which the authors seem to be more fascinated than of everything that happens inside.

There is another hurdle that the picture deftly and fortunately avoids.

Many headlines around “Lonely Planet” focused on the fact that it is an age difference, at least the third large romance with A celebrities, which this year according to “A Family Affair” and “The Idea” on streaming To see service is from you.”

What this mini-trend says in a broader cultural sense is best left to others. But while the film recognizes the age difference between his main actors, which he also has to refuse to stick to it.

Whenever the film wanders too far in one direction, the stars have a good sense of how they can steer the focus back on the characters.

Der is a consistent expert at appearing completely natural and comfortable in front of the camera. Here she plays out the desperation and confusion that brought Katherine to this place at this particular crossroads in her life, building a relationship with Hemsworth’s Owen that is palpably about more than just physical attraction.

Hemsworth is also something like a revelation to finally get a role that enables him to concentrate entirely on acting without being distracted by expensive pyrotechnics performances (“The Tributes of Panem”) or basic genre conventions.

It takes advantage of the special burden on loneliness that manifests themselves in unknown places when the routines that determine everyday life are lost and finally has time to think exactly where you are and how you got there.

CONCLUSION It’s more subtle and thoughtful than you’d expect, and the actors nail it.