From the moment the casting was announced, I knew that People We Meet in Vacation would be the rom-com of the year, and it’s an absolute fact now. Emily Henry’s romance novel comes to life with outstanding performances, a sharp screenplay, and gorgeous directing, all wrapped up with the sparkliest bow in the form of cozy beats and a heart-squeezing soundtrack.
My sole complaint is that I wish it were a TV series because I love this story so much, I want more of it. I want to keep going on vacation with Poppy and Alex and intrude on their every interaction because Emily Bader and Tom Blyth are too exceptional at embodying their respective characters. To top things off, rom-coms like this aren’t something we get often, and the last time Netflix specifically housed an original that left a mark was Wedding Season. Fun, flirty, and full of longing, these are the type of stories that we can always use as perfect escapes in a sea of melodramas that are out to destroy us emotionally.
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People We Meet on Vacation is basically here to heal us, and as Heated Rivalry also proved to non-romance readers a month ago, it’s the romance genre that does far more for emotional storytelling than any other, and it’s why we’re so drawn to them in the first place. Inspired by the heart of When Harry Met Sally, Emily Henry’s novel is a captivating love letter to friendships and the idea of home being a person, which the screenplay, penned by Yulin Kuang, honors just as brilliantly, firing on all cylinders as it carefully adapts Henry’s sharp banter.
People We Meet on Vacation Is a Perfect Adaptation on All Fronts
And at its core, the writing alongside the performances shows us exactly how and why these characters continue orbiting around each other. Poppy and Alex might be opposites, but the light and life they bring out of one another isn’t something anyone else can manage. It’s why it never works out with anyone else, because in them, they’re always searching for each other. It’s through their love story that we get a clear sense of what it means to find the person who’s cosmically made for you, even when they shouldn’t be, and why time and again, no one could ever fit the spot carved in your heart just for them.
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People love to hate on friends-to-lovers as a romance trope for various reasons that make very little sense, but in reality, it’s the most realistic outcome. And in every way where it matters, People We Meet on Vacation paints a portrait of this vibrantly messy reality with so much longing on both their parts that it’s exceptional to witness on all fronts.
Interestingly, it’s also worth noting that while Emily Henry tends to write her novels in first-person present tense through the female character’s point of view, we never get the sense that we’re missing much from the male point of view. And in every way where it was obvious from the novels that Alex Nilsen fell first—hard and fast—that much is also obvious from the movie, because Blyth shows us all that we need to see that the person Alex is around Poppy is his favorite version of himself.
And that same sense of quiet yearning, blanketed with Poppy’s signature wit, is what Bader delivers perfectly to show us all the things inside Poppy’s head that we aren’t aware of, given the form of media. (Please watch her in My Lady Jane if you haven’t yet!) The layers and nuances both actors bring to these roles are so phenomenal that while you’re watching them here, you aren’t thinking of previous roles they’ve been in, which is where the artistry of great acting lies.
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The beating heart of a romantic comedy often and always boils down to the humanity at its center—the underlying emotions many of us keep under lock and key, like the fear of being too much or less than. It’s how human beings crack themselves wide open in front of one specific person who takes us as we are and makes the ordinary special. And from start to finish, the characters are at the heart of People We Meet on Vacation, making every second of the movie feel like a small glimpse of magic. From quiet moments to wildly loud ones—everything about it feels right and memorable. This isn’t the type of rom-com we’re going to forget in a few years, but it’s going to be one that’ll continue delivering something to all kinds of viewers who need its magic.
Brett Haley’s directorial vision is stunning as a vibrant ride that makes the interactions fun and whimsical. The changes from Henry’s novels each make sense in a way that matters from a narrative standpoint, allowing the transitions from past to present to provide an extra layer of nostalgia I wasn’t searching for when I found it. The execution is where so much of the heart lies, and I can’t stress enough how well it’s paced here.
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2025 was a tough year for people, and 2026 didn’t exactly get off on the right foot either. We’re nowhere near the bright spots we want to be in, but with a movie like this, maybe we can have a little magic and a glimmer of hope that’ll always be there when we’re searching for comfort. Because where there’s sadness and heavy content, it’s the rom-coms that are always there when we need to feel something more, and People We Meet on Vacation will always be here to deliver in spades.
First Featured Image Credit: ©Netflix