“People We Meet On Vacation” Could Surprise You

“People We Meet On Vacation” is a surprisingly watchable mix of the opposites attract/best friends/summer romance tropes.

Another Valentine’s Day, another rom-com up for review, a genre for which Ihave learned to liberally temper my expectations because I know we are long past the golden age of the rom-com.

The film, streaming on Netflix, is about two friends who take summer vacations together as a tradition that may or may not blossom into something more.

Poppy (Emily Bader) is a New York City-based travel writer who is living the dream of many – getting paid to take vacations and write about it.Alex (Tom Blyth) is an English teacher pursuing advanced studies in Ohio.

Poppy’s character is introduced a bit haphazardly – and a lot like her actual character. Plucky, all over the place, and going a mile a minute.

We see her travel to exotic places and regularly come home to an apartment with dead plants and a refrigerator with nothing else but a shriveled lemon.

Needless to say, her job prevented her from putting down any kind of roots.

Straitlaced Alex, on the other hand, has a stabler lifestyle: an annual routine of teaching during the school year and summer vacations with Poppy.

During their one time together for the entire year, Poppy encourages him to let loose and gives him a nickname for the summer: Vacation Alex.

Poppy and Vacation Alex are always a fun combination during the summer, but things come to a head when they realize they eventually need to go back to their real lives, and face the reality of their opposing lifestyles, careers, and geographies.

We can meet different kinds of people on vacation.  But sometimes it's us who feel different, outside of our real lives and routines.

Some food for thought, do you have a version of yourself that seems to exist only during vacations?  

What do you look forward to the most on your vacations?
And, when your vacations wind down, how do you feel about going back to real life?
Ideally, the real life you have designed for yourself will be healthy enough for you to want to settle back into it after an amazing destination R&R.

Happy Valentine's Day!