Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram) Click here for audio version
“On vacation, you can be anyone you want. You can do anything you want.”
‘People We Meet on Vacation‘ opens with a dreamy shot of a young woman reading a book by the beach, while she says the most cliched stuff about travel in a voice-over. But just as you start rolling your eyes, a fun little narrative twist unfolds: all the positive things she says about travel doesn’t match with her on-ground experience. So as she talks about how great it is to swap tales with fellow travelers, in reality, she eats alone at a restaurant and awkwardly fails to join in the laughter of two friends sitting next to her. Unfortunately, this opening montage is one of the very few entertaining segments of this holiday-themed romance.
Directed by Brett Haley, ‘People We Meet on Vacation’ is based on the best-selling novel by Emily Henry. Emily Bader plays protagonist Poppy, a cheery travel writer always zooming to new places, while Tom Blyth is Alex, Poppy’s reserved, calm, grounded friend who loves to stay home. The story follows how they go from strangers to best friends and make a pact to vacation together every summer. But as their bond deepens, things get complicated, leading to a rift. When Alex’s brother calls Poppy for his destination wedding in Barcelona, the friends get a chance to reconcile.
The problem with‘People We Meet on Vacation’ isn’t the fact that it’s predictable, we all know what happens in stories where a cozy pair claims to be ‘just friends’. What’s annoying is how the opening sequence deceives you into thinking this is not another one of those films, while serving flashbacks with the same ingredients you’ve seen in film after film.
There’s the age-old ‘opposites attract’ trope: one of them is extroverted, talkative, loves to do impromptu things, while the other is introverted, reserved, and believes in planning their life out. ‘The Map That Leads to You’ has almost the exact same storyline (not that it’s any better), with a few details tweaked, and both the book and the movie came out before ‘People We Meet on Vacation’.
Emily Bader never convinces as the chirpy Poppy, and the character is simply annoying from start to end. Tom Blyth is bland as the boring Alex, and the makers fail to show why Poppy is attracted to him. Actually, sorry, I think she falls for his abs. “You’re ripped!,” she tells him on their first vacation together, and that’s probably what makes her weak in the knees for Alex. But the abs are rarely on display for the viewers, so excuse us if we don’t find him as charming or hot. On second thoughts, at least Alex is kind, and nice. So the other question is – why does he like Poppy? Whose entire personality doesn’t go beyond ‘I love travel!’.
By the way, ‘People We Meet on Vacation’ is spread over nine years, showing selective moments between Poppy and Alex in flashbacks. In the current timeline, they are both headed to the wedding Barcelona. And sure, they must have had a great time together in those nine years, developing a solid bond, however, most of what the viewer gets to see is them being painfully awkward together. The chemistry between Emily Bader and Tom Blyth is barely there, and the film tries desperately to convince the viewer that they’re ‘fun’ together. No, they are not.
After about 50 minutes of the film (it’s almost 2 hours long), I was already taking a break to scroll on social media (and thinking ironically about how the film should’ve been my primary source of entertainment). And no, I do not have an ‘short attention span’ problem, I saw the over three hour long ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ recently, and thought it was pretty good, and had stunning visual effects. In-fact, for a holiday film, even the cinematography for ‘People We Meet on Vacation’ isn’t much to look at.
Everything about ‘People We Meet on Vacation’ feels extremely derivative, from the annual flashbacks to summer holidays, which remind me of ‘One Day’ (another friends-to-lovers story), to the fight and rain kiss that strongly evokes The Notebook. There’s literally nothing new in the script.
When Poppy goes to Barcelona, I couldn’t help but think about how Spain’s residents have been protesting against the overwhelming number of tourists. The writers could’ve easily included a comedic scene where someone shoves a ‘Tourist, go home’ placard in Poppy’s face. Would it have made the film feel dated? Not any more than it already does.
Overall, ‘People We Meet on Vacation’ is a dull, uninspired watch, made worse by the lack of chemistry between the leads. Skip it, unless you haven’t seen the titles I mentioned. In that case, it might seem fresh to you.
Rating: 3 on 10. ‘People We Meet on Vacation’ is on Netflix.
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