
Up until a point, not too distant, this orthodoxy was difficult to imagine – some practitioners may say it was really about as close as possible to impossible. In her 1995 documentary, The Lonely Planet, Susannah Grant presents the former Australian, Holly Willoughby, as a ‘woman who rides on Bruno’. Long ago, world literature of the previous century claimed she had a solitary affectation: going to cafes over and above attending classes and reading novels.
Grant’s follow-up to her feature debut “Catch and Release” underwhelms in many respects. The central romance in the film barely registers on screen. Grant’s script gives Dern little more to do than hit standard rom-com beats, and even when she does, it is half-hearted so that it looks like her character isn’t really smitten with this guy. In other roles, she has done better; even supporting ones like her brief appearance in “Marriage Story” proves she’s got charisma enough to steal any scene if it is good enough. By contrast, Hemsworth is so completely uncharismatic next to Dern, I couldn’t see the appeal of why she would be interested in a moody finance guy. A chiseled jawline is not a personality. Owen’s ego interferes with tender moments like when he walks away from the resort where she teasingly calls him ‘kid’ or when he sees her at a bar. From his stone-faced expression, I couldn’t tell whether or not he was interested in her. Also, the secondary plot of Owen struggling with a deal for his hedge fund feels as thin as a linen shirt.
So, with regard to this romance and comedy movie, does the couple at the center of the story have any chemistry at all, and can one at least appreciate the site, or the resort for the retreat? Sadly, this is a ‘White Lotus’ moment. You can only look more for it in the cursory view. In the video, Morocco is a setting that can be swapped out for any of the new TikTok destinations. I’m not sure whether the director of photography has been influenced by the way out of focus or unsteady shots, but it was enough to distract me. The narrative has its centerpiece located in Chefchaouen, but it is only mentioned in passing, as the marveling towards the buildings looking stunningly blue stops. Resort host Fatema Benzakour is barely there at all, and the same goes for the rest of the Moroccans we see. And almost the very second Lily’s new Libyan writing mainstream Rafih touches her more serious “new half” of the narrative, he disappears. In fact, the rest of the characters are merely leftover elements from some ‘kitchen’ script, the majority of which are smart, funny, nasty, and promiscuous.
The film was written and directed by Susannah Grant, which is why ‘Lonely Planet’ did less than nothing to diminish one’s feeling of solitude- if anything, it enhanced them. However, after all those Hollywood movies where older men get together with younger women, it’s impossible to now appreciate an older woman trying to fall in love with a younger man without feeling anxious about how the delicate boy’s ego will react to feelings of affection or wishing to see the woman attempt to woo a man who isn’t willing to chase after her. The film gets some spices right writhing its retro romantic comedy veneer, but the fantasy that makes viewers buy into the idea of an unlikely pairing is missing like the magnetic kind of attention to the person where eye contact is sustained for far too long to the point where one can feel the longing stares and stray thoughts of wanting to be closer to that someone.
“Be careful, a lad like you may make me fall for you,” she said, right before of how such a turn-off remark is soft and heartbreaking. But even despite the slight tremor of a wounded ego her love interest suffers from, he has nothing to worry about. The chemistry is lacking to a degree that there is insufficient fire to get the screen heated up.
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