“People We Meet on Vacation” by Emily Henry has been adapted beautifully into a short romantic comedy film on Netflix. Her romance novel about needing connection and love stars Tom Blyth as Alex Nilsen and Emily Badger as Poppy Wright.

Summer break is dedicated to Alex and Poppy’s vacation; however, their long-term friendship took a turn two summers ago, and they haven’t spoken since the incident. Nor have they gone on their annual Summer Trip. Now, Poppy is feeling the hole that’s grown in the absence of her best friend, Alex.

“‘I work at one of the top travel magazines! I have a nice apartment! And I can take cabs without worrying too much about what money should go to, and despite all of that’ -I take a shaky breath, unsure of the words I’m about to force out even as the full weight of them hits me like a sandbag- ‘I’m not happy,’” Henry wrote.

In the book, the lack of connection in Poppy’s life, and by extension, the meaningful connection she had with Alex, is what is making her life boring. In order to rebuild that friendship, Poppy decides she has to revive the Summer Trip in order to convince Alex to rejoin her life.

This trip must be fun, nostalgic, and not awkward. Poppy’s underlying goal creates tension underneath the paradise. The first problem arises when reaching out to Alex, he is already on vacation for his brother’s wedding. So, she takes vacation days to join him in a desperate attempt to see him again.

This all changes in the movie; the catalyst isn’t her own realization that her life isn’t truly fulfilling. Alex’s brother calls Poppy to convince her to come to the wedding. I really like and respect this choice. It is a realistic situation considering how close Poppy was with Alex’s family before the incident, and it reorganizes the story so it’s no longer an awkward vacation that would require a longer movie or a TV series.

Also, Henry wrote the book so Poppy comes to terms with her own wants and needs at the beginning of the book, which makes the miscommunication theme later feel forced: if Poppy already knew what she wanted, she wouldn’t hesitate. The movie let her realization come more naturally, leading up to her romantic gesture at the end.

Miscommunication is a huge theme in another one of Emily Henry’s novels, “Happy Place,” but in this book, it’s treated as an afterthought. It felt like an annoying add-on after the initial plot was resolved, dragging on the story unnecessarily longer.

The movie’s decision to postpone Poppy’s understanding of her emotions cleans up this aspect. The miscommunication is clearer in the movie because the medium allows for the perspective to expand out of Poppy’s mind. When a movie makes changes to the story, it’s generally not well-received or in the best interest of supporting the author’s initial message. This was not that movie.

Though the movie communicates the story more easily, Henry adds this emotional depth that
breaks the assumption of a casual read in how intensely she crafts and describes her characters. Their backstories include so many details that the chronology of Poppy realizing her life isn’t fulfilling has roots that make her perspective understandable and human.

The movie truly takes Henry’s words and builds up these characters in flesh and pretty dresses. Poppy Wright could not have been better than how Emily Badger portrayed her. Being an outgoing person who wore her heart on her sleeve, Poppy is an awkward, energetic, social, and spontaneous girl, and everything down to the smallest facial expression was on point.

In the novel, Henry also uses her character’s playful nature to create a light surface; the deeper meaning comes as more of a shock to readers because of this. Using the flashbacks to their previous summers together, their inside jokes, and their chemistry. The light and happy front creates more tension as to why these two ever stopped being friends, which keeps attention and investment.

In the book, the chapters switch between the current summer and the past trips they’ve taken together. The movie follows this format almost exactly, with flashbacks explained by the bright orange font.

I loved the way they altered the Croatia trip, the one where things changed between Alex and Poppy, and they never spoke again. In the book, Poppy and Alex are drunk and finally acknowledge their attraction to each other with a kiss. In the movie, the writers combined it with another emotional trip that they might not have had the screen time to include fully.

This change made their feelings seem more justified and the miscommunication moment more impactful. It’s so clear that Alex intends to ask for clarity in this scene before they continue, but Poppy interprets his hesitancy as rejection. This leads her to claim she didn’t mean it in an attempt to repair the friendship she feared she had just lost.

What the movie had that the book didn’t was the hurt shown on Alex’s face. His emotions are very telling of how he hears her words, which is heartbreaking. His perspective, clearly in love with Poppy and believing she will never choose him, is more obvious in the film.

Though there are a lot of changes and deleted scenes from the book, the movie does an amazing job of capturing Henry’s characters and telling their story.

I give this book a 7/10 for the deep characters and the movie a 9/10 for expanding on Emily Henry’s foundation and bringing it to life wonderfully.