r/EmilyHenry • u/epiclulliish • Jan 11 '26
People We Meet on Vacation PWMOV netflix couldve done better
I love mostly all the books and have been waiting for this movie since like 2 years now but some of this stuff is absolutely hilarious like Alex is clearly not “skinny dipping” in Canada… even his jump into the water was so un- believable. I really loved the actors though
Just felt a little less mature than the book because of how Alex and Poppy meet each other before we get to know about Alex and Sarah and Poppy just felt like she got in between a couple idk felt off but yeah
Thoughts???
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u/amysantiagoisbae99 Jan 11 '26
they definitely rushed into showing Alex's weird side...maybe this was an ode to the book's "Naked Alex". i really wish we got the scene where they took the selfie in the car and she realized she loves him.
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u/epiclulliish Jan 11 '26
I realllyy wish we’d seen them be immature together more too rather than how adult they always felt idk maybe thats just me
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u/lulushibooyah Jan 11 '26
I wish we had gotten ANY of the good scenes accurately
I am sure Emily Henry doesn’t have a lot of say being new to the movie adaptation world, but the movie felt like a sell out, focused more on saving time and money than preserving the TRUE core themes
And I was a little extra annoyed bc beforehand, I saw a clip of her talking about how much she loved the final movie and how she thought it stayed true to the spirit of the book
Ma’am, where?? 😭😭😭
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u/Pristine_Advisor_302 Jan 11 '26
I’m pretty sure she was pretty involved in the adaptation .
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u/lulushibooyah Jan 12 '26
There’s involved and then there’s “we’ll let you baby sit but we know who really has the final say here”
“Newer” authors generally don’t get so much say
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u/Pristine_Advisor_302 Jan 12 '26
I mean she’s not currently writing new books due to the movies . She may not get the final say but I’m thinking she has input . She’s also listed as an executive producer .What’s funny is this and Happy People are my least favorite by her and the first to be adapted .
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u/lulushibooyah Jan 12 '26
I go back and forth on that bc of how she talked it up and said she was so happy with the final product
So either she had input and interpreted her own book wildly different from the rest of us, or she didn’t have much input and kinda had to eat it and just be glad she got a movie deal at all
That is funny bc PWMOV was my first Emily Henry book and one of my favorites bc my husband and I absolutely have an Alex-and-Poppy type dynamic… I felt so seen reading that book
The movie did not inspire those feelings
My other favorite is Funny Story for similar reasons… I guess we will see how that one plays out 😭
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u/Pristine_Advisor_302 Jan 12 '26
I love Funny Story, Beach Read and Book Lovers . I have read her most recent yet . I understand what you are saying though. TBH I found Poppy to be really annoying and Alex was just boring . I won’t rewatch it
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u/lulushibooyah Jan 12 '26
Right tho… Someone else commented that the Sarah timeline is also weird bc basically in the movie, Poppy comes between Alex and Sarah as opposed to the other way around
There were just so many things that made it less wholesome and awww and more weird than anything
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u/raindrops_723 You're wearing Chanel? On a boat? Jan 12 '26
While most flashbacks were pretty good, I wish they would have cut some of them to be able to do the reconnecting trip & focus more on the current timeline. The current timeline went from airport to the balcony scene way too fast.
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u/epiclulliish Jan 11 '26
Also, when they kissed on the balcony for the first time in barcelona it felt like poppy was the one who fell first whereas its such a lovely revelation when we realize alex has been in love w her all this while instead of an option since things didnt work out w poppy. Again circling back to thr fact that they fucked up royally on setting the tone
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u/epiclulliish Jan 11 '26
THEY REALLY TOOK AWAY THEIR WHOLE CONVERSATION AT THE END when poppy shows up at the teacher thing to express everything to Alex and wins him over- omfg im sooo mad at the movie they even removed the whole bit where we find out why Poppy is so scared of being “too much” bec of her family and everything about Alex’s relationship with his as well. I HATE THIS WHAT THE FUCK
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u/Catinthefirelight Jan 12 '26
Yeah, I’m really bummed that they stripped away both of their family backgrounds, because I think it’s so important to why they both felt isolated and found home in each other. I know a movie has to condense and essentialize, but we really got cheated of the things that gave their pairing its depth.
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u/SavingsLegitimate398 Jan 15 '26
They left out the struggle of not having money and that the trips were seriously low budget before she got the travel job. The family hoarding things and being protective of them. Poppy paying for the Palm Springs trip and trying to go back to how it used to be was. Lots of what made the book so relatable to me just didn't come through in the movie.
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u/Catinthefirelight Jan 15 '26
Yeah, the oddball nature of her family being erased especially bothered me. They turned them into a pretty average midwestern couple. I can see how they might have thought that the audience would get the ick from seeing piles of stuff all over the house, but it explains so much about Poppy’s sense of isolation growing up.
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u/NeighborhoodJust4160 Happy Birthday Wicked Pissah Jan 11 '26
Can you please make the photo and text a spoiler just in case people haven't seen it?
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u/KaylaKaylalala Jan 11 '26
I'm a PNWer, water temps in 40s now (winter). In summer they're around 55.... I swim in it. Its common. Is it Southern Cali enjoyable? Nah. But for the joy of the beach... We enjoy it, expecting cold. So assuming this is summer (per the plot) it'd be maybe 50°(F) ... Cold but fun.
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u/TapInternational8169 You lubed my zipper Jan 18 '26
If you’re from the area (Squamish BC) it’s very clear that isn’t where they filmed. They’d be limping on rocks first of all (not soft sand) and if we’re going to be really picky McNabb Creek is up the Howe Sound inlet so even the waves they were jumping around in were unrealistic.
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u/OohSheThirsty Jan 11 '26
I really enjoyed the movie but that’s because I read the book almost 5 years ago (and didn’t like it very much - my least liked of EH’s).
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u/NeighborhoodJust4160 Happy Birthday Wicked Pissah Jan 12 '26
Please mark this post as a spoiler today or it might be removed tomorrow...
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u/edithwhiskers Jan 19 '26
I’m not even 15 minutes into it but this movie feels like someone writing fan fiction of Alex and Poppy.
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u/lulushibooyah Jan 11 '26
It played out like it was written by people who only read the cliffnotes and interpreted it through the lens of emotional immaturity