There is something comforting about a rom-com that isn’t trying to reinvent love, heartbreak, friendship, the holiday wardrobe, or the laws of emotional timing. People We Meet on Vacation, Netflix’s adaptation of Emily Henry’s bestselling novel, arrives at a time when traditional romantic comedies feel strangely rare. We still get romance, of course, but the old-school kind of rom-com, built on chemistry, longing, beautiful locations and two people being painfully obvious about their feelings to everyone except themselves, has become much harder to find.
Thankfully, this film knows the assignment. Directed by Brett Haley, the film stars Emily Bader as Poppy and Tom Blyth as Alex, two former best friends who reunite in Barcelona for a wedding after two years of silence. The story moves between the present and the pair’s past summer trips, slowly filling in the gaps of their friendship, their fallout and the feelings they have both spent years trying not to say out loud. The film is based on Henry’s 2021 novel, bringing her sun-soaked, slow-burn romance to screen.
A Familiar Set-Up, But A Welcome One
On paper, People We Meet on Vacation is very much playing in familiar territory. Poppy is bright, spontaneous and full of energy. Alex is quieter and more reserved, with a broody, slightly too-serious edge that makes him seem like someone who has planned his whole life carefully, right down to the favourite mug and strong opinions on bookshops, until Poppy starts pulling him into the brighter, messier parts of life.
They are opposites. They become friends. They go on yearly summer trips. They do not admit what is clearly happening between them for an almost impressive amount of time. Is it predictable? Absolutely. But predictability is not always a flaw in a rom-com. Sometimes, it is part of the pleasure. You know where the story is going, but you still want to see how it gets there, and more importantly, whether the characters make you care enough to go along with it. For the most part, Poppy and Alex do.
Emily Bader And Tom Blyth Carry The Film
The film works best when it simply lets Bader and Blyth be together. Their chemistry has that slightly awkward, lived-in quality that makes the friendship feel believable before the romance properly takes over.
Bader gives Poppy a warmth that stops her from becoming too much of a standard “quirky girl” character. Early on, there is a risk she could tip into overly manufactured chaos, the kind of character who exists mainly to shake up a serious man’s life. But as the film settles, Bader lets you see the insecurity underneath Poppy’s brightness. She is not just bubbly for the sake of it. She is someone who fills the space because she is terrified of being left in it alone. That is where the film finds something more personal and affecting. Poppy’s fear of being too much, too loud, too needy or too hard to love gives the story a real emotional centre. For viewers who recognise that feeling, even slightly, it lands.
Blyth, meanwhile, brings a quiet charm to Alex. After playing a much darker, colder figure in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, it is genuinely lovely to see him shift into romantic lead mode. Alex could have felt flat in the wrong hands, but Blyth gives him a softness and a dry, hesitant humour that works beautifully opposite Bader’s brighter energy. Together, they make the film feel bigger than its fairly simple shape.
It Could Have Used More Breathing Room
The main issue with People We Meet on Vacation is not that it does anything badly. It is more that you can feel how much story has been squeezed into a two-hour film. Because the narrative moves between the present-day wedding in Barcelona and years of past summer trips, some of the emotional build-up can feel slightly rushed. We get glimpses of Poppy and Alex’s vacations, their jokes, their closeness and their almost-moments, but there are times when you want the film to slow down and let those years breathe a little more.
The criticism that this might have worked better as a limited series is fair. A few extra episodes could have given each trip its own emotional weight and made the final stretch feel even richer. There is enough here to understand why these two matter to each other, but there are also moments where you can sense the film lightly skipping over material that probably had more room to shine on the page. It doesn’t ruin the experience, it just leaves you wanting more time with them, which is not the worst problem for a romance to have.
A Rom-Com That Actually Feels Romantic
What People We Meet on Vacation gets right is tone. It is bright, easy to watch and emotionally sincere without becoming too sugary. The locations help, of course. Barcelona gives the present-day story a sun-soaked glow, while the flashbacks bring that holiday-memory feeling where everything seems a little funnier, warmer and more important because you know it did not last forever.
There is also a refreshing lack of cynicism here, with the film never seeming embarrassed to be romantic as it lets longing sit on the characters’ faces and gives small gestures the space to actually matter. It lets friendship be messy, intense and complicated before it becomes something else. That feels important, because a lot of recent rom-coms have either leaned too hard into gloss or forgotten to make the central couple genuinely likeable. This one understands that the audience needs to root for Poppy and Alex not just because the plot tells us to, but because they seem happier and more themselves when they are together.
CultureCues Standout Moment
The standout moment is the dance scene in New Orleans, when Poppy and Alex are posing as newlyweds and fully leaning into the ridiculousness of it all. Set to Paula Abdul’s “Forever Your Girl”, it is exactly the kind of rom-com sequence that could have felt too cute or too cringe, but instead becomes one of the film’s best moments.
What makes the scene work is not just the dancing itself, though that is genuinely fun. It is the way it captures the whole energy of Poppy and Alex’s relationship: silly, intimate, slightly embarrassing, and full of feeling neither of them is quite ready to name. There are playful nods to classic screen romances too, with the sequence borrowing a little of that Dirty Dancing spirit, while also leaning into a broader, goofy physical comedy that suits Bader and Blyth so well. It is the sort of scene that makes you smile before you even realise you are doing it. It understands one of the golden rules of the genre: sometimes the best romantic moments are not grand speeches, but two people letting themselves look ridiculous together and somehow making it feel like the most natural thing in the world.
Final Thoughts
People We Meet on Vacation is not a groundbreaking rom-com, but it does not need to be. It is warm, funny, charming and carried by two leads who make you believe in the friendship as much as the romance. Yes, it could have used more build-up. Yes, some of the flashback structure feels a little too compressed. But when the film works, it really works.
As a book fan, and as someone who was really looking forward to seeing one of Emily Henry’s romances make the jump to screen, this feels like a promising start. It has made me even more excited to see what comes next from the Emily Henry adaptation universe, and as someone who already loves her books, I’m very ready for more of that warmth, humour and heart on screen. Get your snacks, gather the group chat or your book club, and let this one do what rom-coms are supposed to do: make you laugh, make you swoon a little, and make you believe, just for a couple of hours, that timing might work out after all.
People We Meet on Vacation was released on Netflix on 9 January 2026.
Nikki Murray is a UK-based writer, screenwriter and founder & editor of CultureCues, covering film, television, music and pop culture. Her work focuses on storytelling, emerging voices and the cultural moments shaping modern entertainment.