by Ruth Aluma Dan, YourPace Contributing Writer
People We Meet on Vacation, starring Emily Bader and Tom Blyth, is a new romantic comedy on Netflix based on Emily Henry’s book of the same name. The movie’s premise centers on two friends, Poppy and Alex, who meet every summer for a vacation together. At some point, they have a falling out, which leads them to not see each other for two years until they meet again at Alex’s brother’s wedding in Barcelona.
The movie, like the book, is told in a non-linear fashion, with flashbacks interspersed throughout the current story. From these flashbacks, we learn how Poppy and Alex become friends and how they spend their summer trips.
The movie starts off nicely enough. We’re introduced to Alex and her internal dilemma of feeling lonely at work, and we get comedic cuts that set up the humor. The first flashback occurs, introducing Alex, a very Type-A personality who likes his rules and routines, in contrast to Poppy, who has a Type-B, chaotic energy. They don’t get along at first, but by the end of their first trip, they realize this dynamic is great for travel and decide to travel together every year.
The movie has a promising setup and some comedic relief, but it’s missing things that would make it a terrific romantic comedy. The biggest issue is its use of flashbacks. It is not necessarily that it uses flashbacks, but rather the timing and the way it is done. The flashbacks make up most of the story and are told mainly through them. In fact, the movie is 1h 58m, and we spend roughly 40 minutes in the present. The rest are flashbacks. While these flashbacks are essential to the story, they feel overdone and dominate the present-day plot.
Because of that, the confession scene at roughly 1h 20m falls flat. The movie doesn’t set up Alex and Poppy’s relationship in the present. The first few flashbacks we get are set-ups to the friendship, and the first time we get a sort of “maybe more than friends” feel is 55 minutes into the movie. But this is in flashback. In the next flashback, we learn the reason Alex and Poppy fall out: the feelings developing despite both being in a relationship. But two years have passed since the last flashback. Because of the time jump, the movie should have set up how the characters are feeling in the current moment. The love confession would have hit harder if we had seen that, after all this time apart, they still feel for each other. Instead, we’re just told about it through various characters in very little time, which doesn’t make the audience care much about the present confession. The movie should have set up their feelings in the flashback more quickly and spent more time with the present Alex and Poppy.
Another way this movie failed to make a lasting impression is its shallow character development. When we first meet Alex and Poppy and see their opposite personalities, we’re set up with why they can’t be in a relationship. Poppy even highlights this after talking about everything they like and hate. She says, “It’ll never work out between us,” in a joking manner. This sets up the conflict of why they can’t be together, but we don’t see how they change over the years. We don’t spend enough time in the present to see the way they have developed and why the relationship might work this time around. It does just the opposite; the few bits we get in the present highlight just how much a relationship between them wouldn’t work. Because of this, when they do get together, there isn’t much satisfaction in it because they still have to overcome the issue of why they can’t be together, which isn’t their feelings. Alex even says this after they get together when they argue over where to go from here: “Love has never been our problem.” But the end of the movie gives a shallow solution, which is, in fact, just the power of love, even though that’s not the problem. Poppy runs to Alex and tells him that she wants to be anywhere he is, and Alex says, “As long as I’m with you, I don’t care.” The issue with this is that they’re exactly where they were before she ran to him. They’re still polar opposites, but love is what moves them forward. There’s no clear solution to making this relationship work, although the epilogue we get by the end proves that they’re making it work. Despite that, the ending still feels hollow and doesn’t fully solve the conflict.
The pacing issues and shallow solutions make this another forgettable rom-com. It is a fun watch, once, if you’re bored, but not a movie to recommend as a “great rom-com” like the classics. Emily Bader’s performance is natural, and Tom Blyth is a good choice as a male lead, but People We Meet on Vacation might have worked better as a series, with more focus on present-day Alex and Poppy and enough time to build their relationship through flashbacks, addressing both issues.
