How Netflix’s People We Meet on Vacation changes the book’s story and tone

Time reports that Netflix’s adaptation of Emily Henry’s novel People We Meet on Vacation, streaming now, makes several notable changes to the book’s plot and tone while still following free-spirited travel writer Poppy Wright and teacher Alex Nilsen across years of vacations. The film trims the number of trips the pair take—Henry’s book looks back at 10 summers—dropping locales such as Nashville and Vail and combining plot points so the story fits a movie.

Some set pieces move (a near-first kiss occurs in Tuscany instead of Croatia, and the book’s disastrous Palm Springs sequence becomes a Barcelona episode in the film), and the movie upgrades the pair’s travel conditions. The adaptation also leans harder into broad comedy (sight gags like a breakfast burrito, a thwarted hookup involving a water taxi driver and a memento mori tattoo, a Paula Abdul dance number, and an awkward parents’ scene) and gives Alex and Poppy’s partners larger roles than they have in the book.

The ending is slightly altered but similar in spirit: after a Barcelona hookup Alex breaks things off, Poppy resigns from her job and races to tell him how she feels, delivering a speech largely taken from the book—"You’re not a vacation to me, Alex. You’re home." The film then flashes ahead to the next summer with the pair building a life in New York.

Key Topics

Culture, Emily Henry, Netflix, Poppy Wright, Alex Nilsen, Tom Blyth