It’s always rewarding to be right when it comes to excitement and anticipation surrounding a cast for a movie or TV show. It’s the best kind of “I told you so,” and many of us have been screaming about this detail since day one. From the moment we got news that Emily Bader and Tom Blyth would be our Poppy Wright and Alex Nilsen in People We Meet on Vacation, it was obvious that their performances would make it feel as though they’d been shaken straight out of the books.
And that much feels true after watching the movie, but perhaps even more so because they not only meet my mile-high expectations but they surpass them. They give us far more than I ever thought possible, bringing to life scenes from the book with brief, thoughtful expressions and layered mannerisms. It’s so flooring that right from the start, I was too enamored even to think properly. I had to watch the movie more than once to properly write my review because I was in such a happy daze the first time, I couldn’t process it. And yet, isn’t that the magic of finding a piece of fiction that just speaks to you? (Pun intended. Poppy Wright would get me.)
People We Meet on Vacation isn’t in my top three of Emily Henry books, but my God, the movie elevates everything so much that I’m now rethinking my entire ranking. The bar is set so high with how brilliantly Bader and Blyth bring these characters to life that it’s going to be so overwhelming (in the best way) to continue existing in this rom-com universe if casting continues to be this sensational.
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Beyond this, it’s so fascinating to watch people come out of their initial viewing praising Emily Bader and Tom Blyth for the work they bring to this movie, and it’s so rewarding to watch it. We’ve got two new legends in the making, and it’s genuinely incredible to bear witness, too.
Another significant factor to consider is that rom-coms in the form of movies are a lost art. We don’t get nearly enough of them throughout the years, and because of the stigma around them, there’s a lot more riding on the actors. It’d be a huge accomplishment for the romance genre to have People We Meet on Vacation adapted as a mini-series, but because Bader and Blyth do such a compelling job of layering their characters with depth in the short runtime, that’s an even bigger triumph.
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The versions of them we get as Gladys and Keith in New Orleans could warrant an entirely separate article to highlight all the small ways in which they not only deliver gradual changes in their emotions, but how they show us that they’re their truest (and weirdest) selves around each other.
They have less time to work with it, and given the sharp banter and quiet emotional beats, they work overtime to allow the story’s contained arc to be fully fleshed out. And for this reason, it’s a good feeling to say with my whole chest that real rom-coms are back, baby.
And here’s the thing: we’ve been in the business of defending romance for a long, long time. I’ve not only watched fellow critics rip the genre to shreds, but I’ve seen actors themselves shy away from it with the belief that it would somehow tank their careers. Yet, rom-coms aren’t any easier to master than a prestigious drama. It’s not every actor who can be charming enough to sell the necessary emotions for us to believe that they’re falling in love while simultaneously delivering humor, vulnerability, and all the sincere emotions necessary to ensure their delivery feels grounded.
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So this unnecessary flak the genre gets is so frustrating because it’s actually an incredible sign of how much actors can actually accomplish and how much of their range comes through in these emotional beats that few genres touch on. The best romantic comedies are also full of moments that effectively touch on humanity and our flaws in a manner that’s so relatable, it makes everything feel twice as transparent.
Tom Blyth and Emily Bader deliver masterful work throughout every scene they’re in to ensure that we understand these characters. If I weren’t someone who’d read the book prior, I’d run to pick it up. But even with the changes, the heart of their performances honors the essence of their book characters so brilliantly that years from now, the movie will still have an impact because of how they make Poppy and Alex so memorable.
People We Meet on Vacation is now playing on Netflix.
First Featured Image Credit: ©Netflix