People We Meet on Vacation | Film Review

 

Poppy (Emily Bader) and Alex (Tom Blyth) are best friends who go on vacation together every summer. But after two years of not speaking, Poppy has one chance to connect with Alex again, before they lose their friendship for good.

I've owned the book this film is based on for years but only read it a few weeks before the film came out. I was interested enough in the book to look forward to the film, but I didn't love the story as much as I wanted to.

I enjoyed the movie as much as I thought I probably would.

I have to admit, I was sceptical about the casting based on the book, but I really loved these two together!

The chemistry was good and the actors work well together. Their friendship was lovely to watch and the best thing about the film. The romance was okay, but it only really worked because of how strong their friendship was.

And actually, their chemistry worked much better for a friendship than a romance.

As with all adaptations, there were fundamental changes from the book that weren't included in the film. And while this is expected, it was still sad to see some of the things that were lost.

We don't get to know either of the characters as well as we need to, which was a shame because there were things from the book that would have been great to see.

The film is much more surface-level than the book, which is definitely saying something because the book didn't have much depth either.

The main thing about the couple and their romance that didn't work for me was that there was no tension, no yearning, no sense of desire at all. It didn't feel like they really needed each other.

And because of that, I didn't really care about the romantic side of the film by the time it happened.

Overall, I pretty much feel the same way about the film as I did about the book. They were both fine, if quite light and surface-level. If you liked one I'd recommend the other, but they're not the romance of the century.

6/10