A 2026 Romantic Comedy Based On A Beloved Novel Is A Must-Watch On Netflix
There are quite a lot of great romantic comedies on Netflix, but when for fans of Emily Henry's hit novel "People We Meet on Vacation," there's only one choice for their watchlist — because that novel just got adapted into a Netflix original movie directed by Brett Haley, written by Yulin Kuang, Amos Vernon, Nunzio Randazzo, and starring Emily Bader and Tom Blyth.
Henry — whose other huge novels include "Funny Story," "Beach Read," "Book Lovers," "Happy Place," and 2025's "Great Big Beautiful Life," pretty much all of which would also make for phenomenal movie of TV adaptations — is one of the biggest romance writers in the game right now, and it was honestly only a matter of time before one of her novels got an on-screen counterpart. This one casts Blyth as the uptight Alex Nilsen and Bader as his free-spirited best friend Poppy Wright, who maintain a pact that every single year, they'll go on a vacation together and behave like one does on vacation — meaning that they're free, uninhibited, and willing to take risks they wouldn't normally take. As Poppy and Alex keep going on trips together, a spark grows between them, despite other relationships, leaving them to wonder if they've been meant for each other all along.
Right here at Looper, Alistair Ryder reviewed the movie and gave it a middling review, declaring that it's basically a lackluster version of Rob Reiner and Nora Ephron's famous friends-to-lovers film "When Harry Met Sally" (and to be incredibly fair, both movies literally open with the pair taking a road trip as they head home from college). Still, if you're looking for a fizzy and fun rom-com bolstered by two solid central performances, check out "People We Meet on Vacation" — so what is it about?
What happens in People We Meet on Vacation?
After that first fateful drive that Poppy and Alex take back to their shared hometown in Ohio, they end up having to spend the night at a dinky motel because of car troubles ... and despite their enormous differences, they become best friends (Poppy is erratic and messy, whereas Alex likes rules and order). Years after their first meeting, Poppy is invited to the destination wedding of Alex's younger brother David ("Boots" star Miles Heizer) in Barcelona, and because Poppy is a travel writer who keeps a sparse apartment and prefers to jet-set around the world instead of dealing with her problems, she manages to get her boss Swapna Bakshi-Highsmith ("The Good Place" veteran Jameela Jamil) on board and heads to Barcelona on assignment, hoping she might reunite with Alex.
Then, we learn about the massive fracture in Alex and Poppy's friendship courtesy of their budding attraction and human roadblocks in the form of Alex's long-term on-again, off-again girlfriend Sarah ("The White Lotus" Season 3 standout Sarah Catherine Hook) and Poppy's short-term flings, like her flighty jet-setter boyfriend Trey ("Emily in Paris" supporting player Lucien Laviscount). This is a romantic comedy, though, so the two figure out a way to put aside their differences for a big romantic kiss in the rain and declarations of love that had obviously been simmering for years ... but at the risk of spoiling the entire movie, we'll keep some of the bigger plot details under wraps. So where have you seen this movie's two stars before?
Where have you seen Tom Blyth and Emily Bader before People We Meet on Vacation?
If Tom Blyth looks familiar to you, we're willing to bet it's because you saw him star as a young Coriolanus Snow — the future president of the dystopian nation called Panem that serves as the setting for "The Hunger Games" — in that trilogy's 2023 prequel "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes." (Just to refresh your memory, the late, great Donald Sutherland played the oldest form of Snow to date in the original trilogy.) In this prequel, set during the 10th-ever Games, Blyth's Coriolanus, whose family's fortunes are fading fast, is determined to be the best Capitol mentor to his tribute and win the Games outright to restore glory to the Snow name; unfortunately, he's given District 12, a deeply impoverished district of Panem that hasn't ever produced a winner. When he meets his female tribute, singer and performer Lucy Gray Baird ("West Side Story" and "Snow White" star Rachel Zegler), he realizes her flair for performing can potentially help them in the games, and the two strike up an unexpected connection.
As for Emily Bader, aside from "People We Met on Vacation," she starred as the titular Lady Jane Grey in the Amazon Prime original series "My Lady Jane," about the real British royal who reigned as queen of England for an infamous nine days. Unfortunately for Bader and audiences around the world, Amazon cancelled the fun, deliberately anachronistic "My Lady Jane" after its single debuted in 2024, but at least that did free Bader up to appear in this fun romantic comedy. "People We Meet on Vacation" is streaming on Netflix now.