Netflix’s People We Meet on Vacation: adaptation choices, cast perspectives and mixed reviews
Netflix’s film of Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation alters key book elements, features stars Tom Blyth and Emily Bader, and received mixed responses.
Overview
Netflix released People We Meet on Vacation, starring Emily Bader as Poppy and Tom Blyth as Alex, adapting Emily Henry’s 2021 bestseller for streaming audiences.
The film condenses the book’s timeline, shifts key locations to Barcelona, omits contentious plotlines like the vasectomy decision, and reduces some of Poppy’s backstory.
Actors and director acknowledged homages to When Harry Met Sally; Blyth and Bader discussed choreography, fan expectations, and pressures adapting a popular novel for Netflix.
Reviews were mixed: some praised chemistry and comedic moments, while critics said the adaptation flattens the book’s emotional depth and leans more on rom-com tropes.
Changes alter character motivations and reduce Poppy’s interior journey, prompting debate about fidelity in adaptations and whether the film satisfies book fans and rom-com viewers.
Analysis
Center-leaning sources present a neutral Q&A that foregrounds actors' quotes rather than editorial judgment. The piece frames When Harry Met Sally comparisons as the actors’ own assessments, uses descriptive lead lines, highlights production details (choreography, fan reactions) and avoids loaded language or omission of competing perspectives.
Sources (4)
FAQ
The Netflix adaptation compresses the novel’s decade-spanning, back-and-forth timeline into a more streamlined narrative, relocates major trip sequences from places like Palm Springs to Barcelona, and trims or removes several side plots, resulting in a simpler, more conventional rom-com structure than the book’s slower, more introspective friends‑to‑lovers buildup.
The film removes or downplays some of the book’s more contentious and interior elements, including Alex’s vasectomy decision and much of Poppy’s deeper backstory and therapy-driven self-examination, which in the novel are central to explaining her restlessness and emotional growth.
Emily Bader plays Poppy and Tom Blyth plays Alex, portraying the same core opposites-attract dynamic as in the novel—Poppy as outgoing, impulsive, and travel-obsessed, and Alex as reserved, routine-oriented, and rooted in his hometown—though the film gives them less interior monologue and backstory than the book does.[1]
Many book fans feel the movie flattens the novel’s emotional depth by minimizing Poppy’s internal journey, rushing the slow-burn friendship‑to‑romance arc, and leaning more on familiar rom-com tropes, so the payoff of their relationship feels less earned than in Emily Henry’s original story.[1]
The director and cast have said they intentionally included nods to When Harry Met Sally, using it as a tonal and structural touchstone for a friends‑to‑lovers romance that unfolds over years, with banter-heavy dialogue and situational comedy shaping Poppy and Alex’s evolving relationship, similar to Harry and Sally’s dynamic.
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