What have you been binge-watching on Netflix lately? We might know the answer already for half of you because there’s no way this film is trending at the top of the streaming charts after all the bad-mouthing. Hypocritic, much?
Curiosity killed the cat, but in the case of this newly-released Netflix romantic drama, curiosity pushed it to unexpected glory. In Flix Patrol’s daily Top 10 chart crowning the most streamed movies and shows on all major streaming platforms in 160 countries, Liam Hemsworth and Laura Dern’s Lonely Planet is sitting at the top as the most-streamed movie on Netflix. Now, if you’ve actually sat through the movie, you’ll understand why this is a head-scratcher, to say the least.
But even if you have better taste and did not spend 1 hour and 34 minutes trying to make sense of the romance, Lonely Planet‘s neon-green 39% Rotten Tomatoes score should make its achievement sound unbelievable to you anyway. Released on Oct. 11, the Netflix film follows the intoxicating, life-altering love affair between a reclusive novelist Katherine Loewe (played by Dern) and a young finance Manager Owen Brophy (played by Hemsworth), who Katherine meets at a prestigious writer’s retreat in Morocco.
Sounds intriguing, right? Well, if you’re expecting sparks to fly, you might want to lower your expectations — or perhaps swap the sparks for a flickering candle in a windstorm. Hemsworth and Dern might be A-listers, but their on-screen chemistry feels more like two people awkwardly sharing an UberPool than a blossoming romance. Yet here we are, with the film conquering Netflix’s global audience like it’s the next great love story.
And it’s not just us calling the romance flat. One thing that both the critics and audiences have reiterated in their reviews is the lack of chemistry between Hemsworth and Dern. The romance falls so flat on its face that instead of sparks flying, we get the equivalent of a wet matchstick making even the most awkward first dates seem electrifying in comparison. The best one yet, Keith and the Movies called the “low-temperature romance” between the characters “better suited as drinking buddies than new-found lovers.”
But despite all the poor reviews and ratings (IMDb gives it a 5.8/10 thus far), Lonely Planet has left both reviewers and audiences perplexed, leaving them to ask how a movie with such an underwhelming romantic connection is dancing at the top of charts usually dominated by heart-pounding dramas and feel-good love stories. Maybe it’s the exotic, far-off locales, or maybe people just couldn’t keep themselves away from Hemsworth and Dern’s lethal face cards.
In any case, Netflix has added Lonely Planet to its expanding library of “so bad it’s somehow watchable” movies. Clearly, a global audience — armed with a lot of free time and, apparently, low standards — can propel even the dullest flicks to the top of the charts. So what’s the takeaway here? Perhaps I ought to give filmmaking a shot as well. But only if Margot Robbie and Henry Cavill agree to join me.
