Since its release on January 9th, the movie The People We Meet on Vacation has received much attention, with mixed reviews. The romantic comedy is a film adaptation of the novel by Emily Henry. The story follows an unlikely friendship to lovers plotline, starring Emily Bader as Poppy, a flighty young girl, and Tom Blyth, her highly organized best friend Alex. While Poppy dreams of leaving their hometown, Alex hopes to settle down in it forever. Despite their differences, the two make time for a vacation, just the two of them, every summer. You follow them through a re-kindlement of their relationship after a fall out, and watch them realize that either way they can’t go back to being friends.
The development of this plotline, although used by many in the past, is timeless for a reason. The People We Meet on Vacation is light and airy with plenty of banter, a dance break, and a little suspense around if Poppy and Alex would actually make the final move in the end. While many can find this cookie cutter a bore, as it’s already been done in classics like 27 Dresses and When Harry Met Sally, I enjoyed the predictability of knowing deep down I didn’t really have to worry about whether or not they “get together”. But, this used storyline could have easily fallen flat and become overshadowed by the greats of friends-to-partners rom-coms, if it wasn’t for the actors.
Tom Blyth and Emily Bader, both with thriving careers, showed a lot of on screen chemistry. I found their development from friends-to-partners to be natural, but clear. Tom Blyth starred as another popular romantic lead in Hunger Games: The Ballad of Song Birds and Snakes. Initially it was hard for me to picture him as any other couple, but I forgot entirely about any past fake relationships when Alex and Poppy took the screen. Their connection was obvious in the “opposites attract” mantra they portrayed. Poppy, being Alex’s other half, made so much sense in the movie, that I now question if Emily Bader is Tom Blyth’s missing piece.
A difference in the plotline I appreciated was the constant flash-backs. You flip-back and forth from the present day, where Alex and Poppy are reviving their relationship, and memories starting from when they first met all the way up to their big fight. This format allows the characters’ personalities to form slower than most narratives, as you learn something new about them with each memory.
While I’m sure many saw The People We Meet on Vacation as an unoriginal take on the same formulaic chick-flick, I found it to be a good way to turn your brain off for two hours and come out feeling uplifted by the end.