As someone who has read nearly every book by Emily Henry, People We Meet on Vacation included, I was so excited when they announced that they were releasing a movie adaptation. While People We Meet on Vacation was not my favorite book written by Henry, I still loved her writing and seeing books come to life on screen. Not to mention, Tom Blythe and Emily Bader were playing Poppy and Alex, the two main characters. I loved both actors in their previous roles, so needless to say, my hopes were high.Â
However, after watching the movie, I found myself pretty disappointed. The movie lacked a lot of the depth that the book really explores. One of my favorite things about Henry’s writing is how she makes all of her characters three-dimensional. Every character has a unique personality and back story that she explores in depth, yet the movie barely touches on these aspects of the characters.Â
We get a very surface-level idea of who Alex and Poppy are. When I read the novel, I was not a huge fan of the characters to begin with, but the movie takes away a lot of the redeemable qualities the book gave them.
First, I’d like to talk about Poppy. Poppy’s depiction in both the book and the movie is very similar. The problem I have with it is…I just don’t like her. I think in the book it’s easy to overlook a lot of Poppy’s bad qualities because we are getting her inner monologue, but the movie does not have this privilege. The movie forces you to look at Poppy from a more objective standpoint and realize how deeply flawed she is, and yet it lacks the time and energy to delve into why she behaves the way she does.Â
As for Alex, I think his greatest character flaw is how he handles his relationship with Sarah. I really felt for Sarah throughout the movie in a way that I hadn’t throughout the book. I think seeing how Alex and Poppy were clearly in love with each other, while Alex continues to string Sarah along, really highlighted this for me. Seeing the emotional cheating in the film made both of the main characters very unlikable, in my opinion.Â
When it comes to the film itself, I think it had some pacing issues. There simply wasn’t enough time to develop Poppy and Alex’s relationship in a meaningful way. Every trip lasted a short amount of time, under-developing their connection. It would move so fast from one trip to the next without really showing the vulnerability they shared with each other.
I did not find the movie to be all bad, though. I think it just lacked some of the important parts of the book and wasn’t really the nostalgic rom-com I’ve been looking for. However, I think the actors did a fine job of portraying Alex and Poppy; I just happened to realize how much I disliked the characters. I think if I had not read the book, the movie would have been much more impactful, but having read the book, it was kind of just meh. I wouldn’t say it was bad, but I wouldn’t say it was good either. I think it was fine and did its job as a fun and entertaining watch, but personally, I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch it again.