A Liam Hemsworth flop is now topping Netflix charts
A new romantic comedy has made its way to Netflix, and despite negative critical reviews, it has climbed the charts to become one of the most-streamed titles. Lonely Planet, starring Liam Hemsworth and Laura Dern, debuted on October 11th, and it has already been gaining significant traction.
The movie sees Dern’s Katherine, a recent divorcee, attend a writing retreat in Morocco where she meets Owen, who is in attendance as the boyfriend of another writer, Lily. As his relationship crumbles with Lily, he finds himself attracted to Katherine, several years his senior.
Unfortunately for the cast, Lonely Planet has not gone down well with many critics (and viewers), who have lambasted the lack of chemistry between Dern and Hemsworth. The character of Owen has been labelled an eye-roll worthy ‘nice guy’ who is actually rather selfish and immature, although the movie tries to convince us otherwise. Additionally, the fact that the movie revolves around Owen’s wandering eye has served to put viewers off even more.
It’s a messy plot with flimsy characters who promote questionable behaviour; it’s safe to say that Lonely Planet won’t be regarded very highly in Hemsworth or Dern’s filmographies in years to come.
Despite the fact that director Susannah Grant believes the two have a great connection – and Hemsworth and Dern connected really well off set – it seems as though many viewers can’t connect with the characters.
Talking to Screen Rant, Hemsworth explained, “We had a connection from the moment we met and sat down. I came onto this project because Laura was a part of it already; the chance to work with Laura was a huge opportunity for me, and I was so excited by that. But coming into it, I’d heard great things about her. She’d just done a little project with my brother, and he’d said really great things about her.”
Still, Lonely Planet has been viewed frequently in the several days since it was released, perhaps because people are desperate to see if the movie is as bad as everyone is making it out to be. The overarching feeling, however, is that the movie is boring and lacking in anything truly attention-grabbing and memorable.
Both actors have certainly lent themselves to better projects, but if you fancy watching something incredibly easy and a little cliched, Lonely Planet is available to stream on Netflix now.