Liam Hemsworth and Laura Dern’s age-gap Netflix film roasted on social media

Australian actor Liam Hemsworth embarks on an affair with Laura Dern in Netflix’s latest romance film, and viewers all had one thing to say.

COMMENT

Amid the era of age-gap autumn, it seems art has been coinciding with life in what’s being coined the “cougar cinematic universe”.

A slew of romantic films have hit streaming platforms this year showing young men being utterly captivated by mature women. First, it was the buzzy Prime Video film The Idea of You starring Anne Hathaway, 41, who embarks on a romance with a fictional boy band member played by Nicholas Galitzine, 30.

Then, Nicole Kidman, 57, enjoyed a host of steamy scenes with Zac Efron, 36, in Netflix’s A Family Affair.

Nicholas Galitzine and Anne Hathaway in Prime Video’s The Idea of You.

Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron in A Family Affair.

And now, on the same streamer, we have the latest age gap offering: Lonely Planet, which stars Australian actor Liam Hemsworth, 34, and Laura Dern, 57, as love interests who have an affair while staying at a retreat in Morocco.

“2024 the year of the cougar cinematic universe,” one viewer noted on X.

“Why is Netflix greenlighting so many Cougar films?” another questioned.

“Cougar movie print money,” a third joked.

Another pointed out how Hemsworth would’ve been three years old when Dern filmed 1993’s Jurassic Park aged 23.

“It’s giving mother son,” one said of their dynamic.

Laura Dern and Liam Hemsworth in Netflix's Lonely Planet.

It wasn’t so much of a talking point when the gender roles were reversed back in the ’90s, when Dern shared a 20-year age gap with her Jurassic Park co-star Sam Neill, who was 43 at the time of shooting.

Both Dern and Neill discussed the little-known age gap they shared while promoting Jurassic World Dominion in 2022.

“I am 20 years older than Laura! Which at the time was a completely appropriate age difference for a leading man and lady,” Neill told The Sunday Times at the time.

“It never occurred to me until I opened a magazine and there was an article called ‘Old Geezers and Gals’. People like Harrison Ford and Sean Connery acting with much younger people. And there I was, on the list. I thought, ‘Come on. It can’t be true.’”

Dern added, “And it was only now, when we returned in a moment of cultural awareness about the patriarchy, that I was, like, ‘Wow! We’re not the same age?’”

Laura Dern and Sam Neill shared a 20-year age gap when they played love interests in Jurassic Park.

Other examples where viewers no doubt didn’t bat an eyelid at the real-life age gaps: Julia Roberts was 22 when Pretty Woman came out, while Richard Gere was 40. Six Days, Seven Nights saw Harrison Ford, then 55, play opposite Anne Heche, who was 29. And perhaps the most outrageous example, 1999’s Entrapment saw a 28-year-old Catherine Zeta-Jones play the love interest of the late Sean Connery, who was 67.

The Idea of You explored themes of the age-gap narrative that’s reserved solely for women who date younger men, given Hathaway’s character Solene was dating Hayes, a famous superstar. Their exposed romance inevitably became the subject of vitriol in the press and on social media, all aimed at Solene. It drew parallels to Harry Styles’ brief relationship with Olivia Wilde, who was 10 years his senior and copped relentless trolling.

Lonely Planet doesn’t make significant references to the lead stars’ obvious age gap, though unfortunately, any sense of female empowerment is muddled given Hemsworth’s character Owen cheats on his girlfriend to strike up a romance with Dern’s Katherine.

Regardless, if 2024 is the year of the “cougar cinematic universe”, let’s make 2025 the year of not having to call it the cougar cinematic universe.