Parents' Guide to Lonely Planet

Despite gorgeous actors, an enticing location, and an interesting idea to set this film at a writer's retreat for global literati, there's a surprising lack of passion in the package as a whole. Lonely Planet has all the elements to appeal to the core streaming demographic of middle-aged women, but something's missing. This is no Nicholas Galitzine tearing off Anne Hathaway's clothes in The Idea of You. When Hemsworth peels back Dern's bathrobe to nuzzle a shoulder, her tepid response is "Careful there." When she refers to him as "kid," he proves her right by storming off.

What Dern and Hemsworth do bring is a maturity and credibility to their dialogues as well as their characters' backstories. Even though the female characters are drawn with more complexity than Owen is, we believe that he would be attracted to a woman on the other side of success, who knows herself and has her values firmly in place. Owen and Katherine are both likable characters, especially in contrast to the more superficial literary celebrities partying hard at the kasbah, and the development of their relationship is pleasant, like a leisurely stroll through the colorful markets, arid hills, and pastel streets of the film's Moroccan setting.