Who is “vacation you”? You know, that version of yourself that gets to exist for the briefest of periods each year as you sink your toes into the sand or wander the streets of a new city, invigorated with the freedom that comes from escaping emails and laundry and carpools.
If you’re anything like me, wherever you are, “vacation you” has a frothy book in hand. And, since Emily Henry’s aptly titled “Beach Read” was published in 2020 and catapulted her to instant bestselling author, there’s a good chance that it’s one of her summer-release romcoms.
Henry has released a book a year since 2020, but “People We Meet on Vacation” is the first to be adapted into a movie. (There are four more on the way: “Beach Read,” “Book Lovers,” “Funny Story” and “Happy Place”). Like the book, the movie, now streaming on Netflix, is a classic friends-to-lovers tale. Free-spirited Poppy (Emily Bader) and strait-laced Alex (Tom Blyth) have been best friends since college, and their slow-burn romance unfolds on annual summer trips between their early 20s and early 30s when they escape their real lives and become their vacation selves.
While the movie largely parallels the book’s plot, it is simpler in scope and relies too much on its structure. Instead of building upon the spot-on casting of Bader and Blyth to develop Henry’s characters, the film assumes an attachment to them that is unearned. The result is that while fans of the book will probably like the movie, and Bader makes a perfect Poppy and Blyth an admirable Alex, the film on its own is a letdown, and Poppy and Alex’s happy ending is unsatisfying.
The movie and book both begin in the present day. An unknown incident has created a rift between Poppy, whose wanderlust has led her to a career as a travel writer for a glossy magazine, and Alex, whose desire for stability led him to teach in their small hometown, the fictitious Linfield, Ohio. They haven’t spoken in almost two years, and Poppy misses him. When Alex’s brother invites her to his destination wedding in Barcelona (in the book, they travel to Palm Springs), it seems like the perfect opportunity for them to reconnect.
But how did two people who are so different become such close friends in the first place, and what went so wrong that they don’t talk anymore? To answer these questions, the movie, like Henry’s novel, uses flashbacks to add context to the progression of the present-day story.
At first, the flashbacks seem to work well. The first goes back nine summers to when Poppy and Alex first met. In a clear ode to “When Harry Met Sally,” the two are strangers stuck in a car together as they drive from their college to their shared hometown. This scene is one of the movie’s highlights, and Bader’s chaotic energy is a delightful onscreen counterpoint to Blyth’s seriousness. It is also one of the flashbacks where the setting — a road trip that begins in standstill traffic before winding through the rural countryside until an error necessitates a stay at a roadside motel — is palpable.
As the present-day story progresses, there are flashbacks to every other year of Poppy and Alex’s annual trips. They visit Canada, New Orleans and Italy. However, for a movie about travel, the plot feels devoid of place. The only location with a strong setting is New Orleans, with its obligatory scenes of them walking together on Bourbon Street, eating beignets and dancing at a dive bar. In the present day, Poppy and Alex reconnect while staying in an upscale Airbnb in Barcelona, and both their accommodations and the secondary locations feel as bland as any set on any soundstage.
Instead, what gives these scenes energy is the believable friends-to-lovers chemistry between Bader and Blyth. However, even their eventual kiss and steamy balcony scene isn’t enough to make the conflict it leads to believable. This is where the movie has a forced third-act problem.
Like all traditional romance trajectories, Poppy and Alex — even after almost a decade of pining — must break apart again before they are allowed to end up together. Without spoiling what happens or why, it’s worth noting that fans of the book will probably miss some key details that are rushed or omitted from this part of the film. Without that backstory, viewers who haven’t read the book may also find Alex and Poppy’s immediate level of commitment rushed or unwarranted. Also, the tropey addition of running to the final scene — a complete departure from the book — is an avoidable, cringey resolution.
The scope of these third-act problems seems to be very specific to the small screen. It’s rare for a rom-com to go from book to streaming without being watered down in some way. Here, the loss of believability stems from the missing depth in the characters’ history, which made Poppy and Alex one of my favorite Henry couples.
At the end of the book, a large part of Poppy’s character development comes from her discovering that the right person can make real life feel like a vacation.
“People We Meet on Vacation” is a reminder of how romcoms — even the imperfect ones — can do that for us. Love stories like Poppy’s and Alex’s give us a respite from daily life, a chance to escape and dream and desire, and, maybe, temporarily feel like our vacation selves, even in the depth of winter.
Unfortunately, Netflix’s adaptation left me feeling cold.
“People We Meet On Vacation” is streaming on Netflix.
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