Lost in Adaptation: Netflix’s People We Meet on Vacation Is a Wonderful Rom-Com but a Mid Adaptation

Truly, one of the best (or worst) things to happen to a beloved novel is for it to receive a film adaptation. Best, if the adaptation is deemed by many as acceptable and worthy. Worst, if the adaptation not only falls flat but also takes away the soul of its original media. Somehow, People We Meet on Vacation lands squarely in the middle, delivering a swoony, hilarious rom-com while also barely doing the original novel any justice.

Photo from Netflix

On this blog, we have discussed the many highs and lows of adapted media. People We Meet on Vacation is simply the first of the most-awaited ones this year. Based on Emily Henry’s book of the same name, People We Meet on Vacation takes us through ten locations where Poppy (Emily Bader) and Alex (Tom Blyth) went on vacation together. The story is told out of chronological order.

The pitfall of the film as an adaptation simply comes down to time. The movie had the massive task of condensing a story told in 400 pages, involving dozens of characters and locations, into just two hours. This led to some details being cut and rewritten, stripping the story down of the complexities that make it succeed.

Despite their personality differences, Alex and Poppy forge a strong bond in their college years, reinforced every year when they took vacations to explore new locations and meet new people. While the novel carefully managed to build up both characters and their relationship with one another, leading to a romance that neither of them was ready for, the film made it seem like romance had been budding under the surface all along, while both of them had relationships with other people in the ten years that the story takes place.

Nevertheless, the performance of the lead stars, Bader and Blyth, carried the film. Bader’s Poppy is whimsical, but not in the frustrating way that some manic pixie archetypes tend to be. Blyth, as Alex, is incredibly charming. There is not one second you would believe that his claim to fame is playing the young version of a postapocalyptic dictator. Their acting especially shines in the contrast of the “before” and “after,” where intimacy is clear, but longing and hesitation are as well. The chemistry is obvious in their friendship, and it seamlessly transitions into the romance by the latter half of the film.

So is People We Meet on Vacation a good movie? Yes, especially considering recent others that fail the rom-com genre (looking at you, One Day). The film is bright, swoon-worthy, and comforting for those of us who long for a person to call home at the end of each day.