Katherine Loewe (Laura Dern), a successful writer, travels to an isolated mountain resort in Morocco where she hopes to have some alone-time to overcome her writer’s block. It’s not so easy find a quiet place to work, however, because the place is hosting a writer’s retreat, and they turn out to be a social bunch.
The queen of the ball, so to speak, is Lily (Diana Silvers), who has a new bestselling novel. She’s brought along her boyfriend Owen (Liam Hemsworth), a finance manager who needs to spend a lot of time on long-distance calls about deals in the works. He doesn’t fit in with the rest of the guests.
One day when Lily and the other writers bow out of a planned excursion to a local town, Katherine and Owen go ahead together. They are good company to each other as they share their impressions of travel, the area, and even are treated to a home-cooked meal by a local family. When he gets back, Owen discovers that Lily has been drinking and using drugs. She humiliates him at a game about literary figures. Now he really feels like he doesn’t belong.
“Lonely Planet” is the title of a popular series of guidebooks, with travel tips for many countries and other ideas – from adventures to food – to entice the eager wanderer. In the title of this movie, the emphasis is on “lonely.” Both Katherine and Owen are lonely and turn first to conversation and then to romance to make their time in Morocco bearable. Yet, just as the books encourage travelers to break out of their safe and sound approaches to travel, the characters’ loneliness sends them off in new directions.