“Lonely Planet” (the movie, not the popular travel guidebook publisher) is the sophomore directing effort from Susannah Grant which comes 18 years after her debut, 2006’s “Catch and Release”. Grant is perhaps best known as the Oscar-nominated screenwriter for 2000’s “Erin Brockovich”. She both writes and directs “Lonely Planet”, a serviceable but surprisingly sparkless romantic drama set in scenic Morocco.

Laura Dern stars as Katherine Loewe, a successful writer who’s having a hard time finishing her latest novel. We learn that her dissolving marriage has contributed to a bad case of writer’s block. With her deadline fast approaching and her publisher breathing down her neck, Katherine flies to Morocco and checks in to a luxury countryside resort owned by an old friend, Fatema (Rachida Brakni).

All Katherine wants is enough peace and quiet to write. But that proves difficult as the resort is also hosting an International Writers Retreat. Among the esteemed attendees is Lily Kemp (Diana Silvers) and her boyfriend Owen Brophy (Liam Hemsworth). Lily is riding high after the success of her first novel. Despite never publishing anything, she became an overnight best-selling author which earned her an invite to the retreat. Owen has come along for moral support.

The nervous but ambitious Lily immediately clicks with the other writers while Owen spends much of his time on the phone trying to land his first big financing deal. But as she spends more time with her literary contemporaries he quickly begins to feel like an outsider. As the story progresses, the equally frustrated Katherine and Owen repeatedly cross paths. And after a rather cold first encounter, the two begin connecting in ways neither expected.

It’s not hard to figure out where things are going. The story leans on several well-worn tropes in moving us towards the inevitable romance, the conflict that threatens it all, and the predictable happy ending. The individual performances from Dern and Hemsworth are solid and they bring what they can to their age-gap love story. But it’s such a low-temperature romance with their characters better suited as drinking buddies than new-found lovers.

Fitting for a movie with its title, “Lonely Planet” treats us to lots of eye-catching scenery while (sometimes awkwardly) dipping our toes in local Moroccan culture. But pretty people in pretty places can only carry it so far. It has its charms but it lacks spark and there’s hardly any passion. That’s because so much time is spent getting to the romance that we hardly have any time with the romance. It leaves us barely interested and even less invested in their relationship or in what the future might hold for them. “Lonely Planet” is now streaming on Netflix.

VERDICT – 2 STARS