Lonely Planet Parent Guide

After watching Lonely Planet, I can say one thing for sure: I want to go to Morocco. The colorful desert hills, flat-roofed buildings, intricately patterned screens and metalwork, and lush, flower-filled oases all feel worlds away from my bland corner of suburbia. This stunning setting is both the movie’s strength and weakness because it’s often more attention-grabbing than the story playing out on the screen. But it’s my job to tell you about the rest of the film, so here it goes.

Katherine (Laura Dern) is a stressed-out, highly successful author, trying desperately to complete a new novel while negotiating a breakup with her partner. In hopes of finding a quiet place to write, she books a last-minute spot at a writers’ retreat in Marrakech, Morocco. She tries to hide in quiet locations to force words onto her laptop, but she can’t avoid other participants forever.

The first one she meets is Owen (Liam Hemsworth), all pecs and blue eyes, a private equity bro attending the event with his partner, Lily (Diana Silvers). The newly-published young author is eager, thin, and has the poor posture that comes from too much time hunched over books and computers (don’t ask me how I know this). She and Owen are coming to the unspoken realization that they are poorly suited, which becomes harder to ignore as their divergent interests are highlighted by their interactions with other attendees. By chance, Owen and Katherine find themselves spending time together, and whether it’s rebound or kismet, they fall into a relationship.

Despite the desert setting, don’t expect a slow burn in the central relationship. It’s more a slow warm up and sometimes it doesn’t even seem like the growing attraction between Katherine and Owen is the heart of the story. More often, it feels like the script is exploring pain; how even people who think they love each other still manage to hurt one another. This isn’t a romantic comedy built on cringy, awkward moments, but a relationship drama grounded in breakups, heartache, and wounded longing.

As a viewer well out of my teens, I appreciate a love story that takes its time and puts the effort into building a relationship. What I don’t appreciate is the film’s totally unnecessary R-rated negative content, especially when judicious editing could easily have made this a PG-13 film. The script’s profanity is the main driver of the R-rating, with 11 sexual expletives (and a sexual hand gesture), along with another 30-plus profanities. There’s also plenty of drinking, sometimes with over-consumption, and a character who is apparently high, although the drug is not named. In addition, there’s sexual content, most notably an against-the-wall sex scene that lacks explicit nudity but has plenty of moaning and other obvious activity.

As a family movie critic, I’m increasingly frustrated by the rising tide of R-rated love stories. Romantic dramas and comedies have traditionally been relatively low on negative content, offering genre fans the chance to unwind and put their brains in neutral while snacking on their carb of choice. And, yes, Liam Hensworth offers plenty of bare-chested beefcake moments and the slow plot provides lots of time for daydreaming about bucket list travel. What the movie doesn’t offer is a viewing opportunity for everyone, even those who like their films as clean as they are romantic.