People We Meet on Vacation Review: Why Emily Henry’s Beloved Novel Struggles on Screen

Netflix’s People We Meet on Vacation, adapted from Emily Henry’s bestselling 2021 novel, arrives with enormous expectations shaped by BookTok love and loyal readers. The film understands that it can never fully replicate the book’s emotional interiority and instead positions itself as a translation rather than a copy—a choice that largely defines both its strengths and its shortcomings.

The story follows Poppy Wright and Alex Nilsen, longtime friends bound by an annual vacation tradition that slowly blurs the line between friendship and love. On screen, People We Meet on Vacation stars Emily Bader and Tom Blyth, whose chemistry is one of the film’s biggest wins. They convincingly sell the emotional safety, warmth, and quiet tension that make Poppy and Alex believable as friends first—an essential foundation for the romance to work.

The film succeeds in capturing the tone of Emily Henry’s writing: gentle, reflective, and rooted in conversations rather than grand gestures. Alex’s anxiety and introversion are treated with care, never framed as flaws needing correction. The non-linear structure allows viewers to see how affection deepens over time, even if it occasionally feels fragmented.

Where the adaptation struggles is time and depth. A story built on years of shared memories feels compressed into montages, with travel destinations serving more as visual backdrops than emotional landmarks. Without Poppy’s internal monologue—so central to the novel—her emotional realisations feel rushed, and some of the book’s most resonant themes, including career dissatisfaction and fear of stagnation, are softened.

Supporting characters add charm but are fleeting, and the film occasionally drifts into a lighter, almost romcom-fantasy tone that contrasts with the book’s quieter intimacy. The review suggests the story may have benefited more from a limited-series format, allowing each trip and emotional shift to fully breathe.

Ultimately, the film does not aim to replace the novel. Instead, it offers a gentler, streamlined version that preserves the emotional essence of Emily Henry’s characters, even if it sacrifices nuance along the way. For readers, it’s less about discovery and more about recognition—and on that front, the adaptation mostly succeeds.