The long-awaited Netflix adaptation of Emily Henry’s 2021 bestseller, “People We Meet on Vacation”, has finally arrived. Although the film manages to capture the magic of Henry’s prose, fans of the book will notice that the journey from the character’s hometown Linfield, Ohio to the big screen involved some significant detours.
The film follows Poppy Wright (Emily Bader), a travel writer living her dream in New York City but feeling stuck with writer’s block. For a decade, she spent every summer vacationing with her best friend, Alex Nilsen (Tom Blyth) from college despite their polar opposite personalities. She’s a spontaneous firecracker while he’s a rigid rule-follower.
However, their tradition broke two years after a disastrous trip to Tuscany, Italy left them estranged. In the present day, she initially calls to tell Alex she isn’t going to his brother’s wedding in Barcelona, but she ultimately decides to show up. As the two navigate the wedding festivities, the romantic tension between them becomes undeniable. Poppy realizes that Alex was the only one she ever truly loved. However, the central conflict remained. Alex is a creature of habit who loves his life in Ohio, and Poppy has built her entire identity on leaving Ohio behind. When the truth of their feelings finally surfaces in Barcelona, Poppy tries to avoid the future, telling Alex they should “talk later.” This triggers Alex’s fear that this is just a temporary stop in Poppy’s spontaneous life. In a heartfelt conclusion, Poppy realizes that Alex is her home, leading to a grand-gesture reunion and a happy ending that proves some connections are worth the trip.
I loved the movie, and even though it felt quicker and more condensed compared to the novel, it perfectly encapsulated the heart and magic that Emily Henry intended. Much of this success is due to the impeccable casting. The chemistry between Emily Bader and Tom Blyth was so palpable that it made quick scenes feel so cohesive. Each scene in the movie felt rushed compared to the long and intricate scenes in the book, however Bader and Blyth’s chemistry sold the character’s connection perfectly. Even though the filmmakers changed several key elements from the original book, the core of the story still stayed the same. These deviations didn’t detract from the experience, instead they allowed the film to stand as its own entity while staying true to the book’s spirit.
As with any book to movie adaptation, several details were streamlined or altered for a cinematic audience. One of the most visible changes is the setting of David’s wedding, which moves from Palm Springs in the book to Barcelona in the film. The film also simplifies the characters’ lives by reducing the number of siblings in both families and changing the college setting from the University of Chicago to Boston College.
Fans will also notice that the famous “Keith and Gladys” aliases are relocated to a vacation in a New Orleans beignet shop, and the emotional weight of their past fallout is mainly shifted on a trip to Tuscany instead of Croatia. The most significant character change involves Alex’s backstory. The book focuses on a permanent medical decision following a pregnancy scare, however the film doesn’t mention any medical decision or pregnancy scare. It was more focused on the simple fact that his relationship with his ex-girlfriend Sarah was extremely unstable. Lastly, the biggest change in the movie was the book’s quiet barroom reconciliation for a classic rom-com grand gesture, featuring Poppy running through the streets to deliver her confession of love to Alex.
The list of deviations are long, but the film proves that a perfect adaptation doesn’t always have to be a literal one. What really matters is not how closely a film follows every single plot point, but whether it preserves the emotional truth that made the story worth telling in the first place.