People You Meet on Vacation: Are Romcoms Back?
Romcom: a slang word for a movie that combines the genres romance and comedy—typically following a perfect, eccentric, and unique female character and a dreamy, perfectly chivalrous male character who fall in love after living out the most ridiculous friendship despite it being glaringly obvious how in love they are—usually paired with an iconic playlist made of female artists singing epic love songs.
I was hesitant to watch The People You Meet on Vacation for multiple reasons. One was that I vehemently didn’t want to read the book, and the second was that I wasn’t sure if I could watch a movie with a ridiculous female character who is seemingly a mess and perfect all at once.
But then I remembered how important these female characters are to the romcom community. Viola Hastings from She’s The Man walked so Poppy Wright could run.
Once I remembered that romantic comedies rely on these perfectly imperfect female leads, was when I was able to sit down and truly enjoy Poppy and the rest of her movie.
So, as a fellow romcom and Tom Blythe lover, I decided to watch The People You Meet on Vacation. However, I haven’t read the book, nor do I plan to, so this is a review solely of the movie, not the adaptation. If you want to hear how much I love book-to-media adaptations, check out one of these blogs.
Rules to Romcoms
What made me love this movie and helped me get over the severe second-hand embarrassment was how authentic this movie was to the romcom genre.
I made a small list of what, to me, are the requirements of an early 2000’s romcom.
eccentric and quirky female character who is beautiful but not in a stereotypical way, and has a cool wardrobe of bright colors and designs that shouldn’t go together but look effortlessly cool on the character
a dreamy male character that probably needs to let loose a little and doesn’t know what fun means
female character works an almost unrealistic journalist job
female character is wearing a beautiful gown when male character realizes he’s in love with her
final declaration of love is made in a random, very public place
My two go-to romantic comedies are Ten Things I Hate About You and How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days. These movies helped me develop my list and reminded me that sometimes, you can love an unsufferebly perfect main character instead of being jealous of her.
In People You Meet On Vacation, our main characters, Poppy and Alex, go to college together in Boston. They meet when Alex drives Poppy home with him to Ohio because they live in the same area.
After multiple teeth-clenching instances where Poppy shows off her clumsy, extraverted personality and Alex cements himself as a control freak, the two become friends. I assume the book goes into more detail about the beginning of their friendship, but in the movie, the first time we see them together again after their disasterous roadtrip home from college is on a camping trip.
This camping trip is the beginning of their vacation pact, where, every year, no matter where they are, they meet for one week on vacation. What could go wrong!
The movie is split between the past and the present. In the present, Poppy and Alex are reuniting at his brother’s wedding after the two best friends not seeing each other for two years.
In the past scenes, we see clips from their previous vacations together as best friends, where their chemistry is so off the wall that you can’t believe Alex is basically in a relationship the whole time.
Through the clips from past vacations, we see how Poppy and Alex feel like they can be their true selves together.
Poppy, a girl who craves travel and a sense of belonging, finds Alex comforting as he acts as an anchor for her in her endless moving life.
Alex, a boy who rarely releases control and can’t seem to get out of his head, lets Poppy tease out the carefree and easygoing personality he hides so deeply.
In the present scenes, we see travel journalist Poppy might be ready for some stability after years of a nomadic lifestyle.
When they reunite at the wedding, classic romcom trope, it’s obvious things are rocky, but we don’t know why. All we know is that Alex broke up with his long-term, on-again, off-again girlfriend, Sarah.
If the past vacation scenes show us the blooming of a beautiful friendship with the hints of something more, the present wedding scenes show us a tense relationship that has reached its boiling point and is about to spill over into something heated.
It Checked All the Boxes
For me, the movie checked all the romcom boxes.
eccentric and quirky female character who is beautiful but not in a stereotypical way, and has a cool wardrobe of bright colors and designs?
I don’t know how to explain this without sounding like I’m insulting the actress, but Emily Bader, Poppy, is the kind of beautiful that doesn’t fit into the stereotypical beauty box. She has this effortlessly cool look and confidence that made her perfect for the not traditionally beautiful character. I really, really loved this actress, so I don’t want this to sound like an insult. It’s more of a compliment and nod to her natural beauty.
a dreamy male character that probably needs to let loose a little and doesn’t know what fun means
Tom Blythe is the perfect mix of dreamy and sexy. Truthfully, the male characters in romcoms tend to exist mostly for their looks, and Tom Blythe, despite his amazing acting skills, does exactly that.
the female character works an almost unrealistic journalist job
One of my biggest gripes with romcoms is that almost every female character is some type of journalist. As someone who has spent the last three years trying to become a journalist, seeing these women living my dream is sometimes a bitter pill to swallow. Like Andy from How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, Poppy is daydreaming of a new job where she can show off her new, mature writing skills instead of writing fun content.
female character is wearing a beautiful gown when male character realizes he’s in love
At the wedding, Poppy is dressed in a beautiful coral red dress, making her the standout of the wedding. During one scene at the wedding, it looks like she’s the only person wearing color while everyone else is wearing neutrals. This is very authentic to romcoms.
final declaration of love is made in a random, very public place
Our main characters confess their love for each other in the middle of a crosswalk after Poppy chased Alex on his run because he couldn’t hear her with his noise-canceling headphones on. Need I say more?
When watching romcoms, you must suspend your disbelief to fully immerse yourself in the movie. If you’re watching with a critical eye, then you’re watching too closely. It’s important to step back from what’s going on and let the movie take you on a journey.
After I stopped seeing Poppy as a not-like-other-girls girl and more as a true romcom lead, I was able to be sucked into her chaotic life.
Final Thoughts, Gripes, and Stipulations
(small spoilers)
Since I won’t read the book, I acknowledge that a lot of these annoyances might be answered in the book.
My biggest problem was with the ending. Somehow, Poppy and Alex not being together or not working was Poppy’s fault. I felt like all of a sudden their situation was twisted to where Poppy and Alex never dated because Poppy was emotionally unavailable and never knew what she wanted. I didn’t like how the final declaration of love was her basically begging Alex for forgiveness.
Need I remind you that Alex was in the throes of a very back-and-forth relationship during his friendship with Poppy, making him truly the unavailable person. I didn’t like how he seemed to have the right to be mad at Poppy when, to me, he was the wall that blocked their relationship from becoming anything more than friends.
Because of this, I couldn’t truly appreciate the ending because I think Alex should’ve been groveling for Poppy.
I think the most important trait of a romcom female character is their effortlessness. Effortless cool, effortless friendly, effortlessly beautiful—and Emily Bader achieved this spectacularly.
From the cheesy scenes to intense declarations of love in the rain, People You Meet on Vacation transports you back into the 2000s for an endeeringly annoying romcom.
Watch it!!!!
