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26: People we Meet on Vacation Part One
36 Plays1 month ago
In Part One of our People We Meet on Vacation coverage, we’re diving deep into the characters that make Emily Henry’s beloved novel so emotionally addictive. From Poppy’s infectious optimism to Alex’s quiet steadiness, we break down who these characters are on the page and how their dynamics shape the heart of the story.
We also discuss how the film adaptation brings these characters to life, what works in translating their chemistry to the screen, and where subtle shifts change the way we understand their relationship. This episode focuses on characterization, casting, and the emotional foundations that make this friends-to-lovers story hit so hard.
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Transcript
Introduction to Book Watch Podcast
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Book Watch, the podcast where pages meet screens. Each week, we dive into the world of adaptations, comparing beloved books with their cinematic counterparts. From faithful retellings to bold reimaginings, we'll break down what worked, what didn't, and what made each adaptation unforgettable. Whether you're a bookworm, a movie buff, or both, grab your bookmark, grab your popcorn, and let's watch some books.
Focus on 'The People We Meet on Vacation'
00:00:35
Speaker
hey everybody, welcome back to another the episode of Bookwatch. This episode we are talking about The People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry, published in 2021, and the brand new 2026 Netflix adaptation, People We Meet on Vacation, directed by Brett Haley. This film is adapted by Yulin Kuang, and the audiobook is narrated by Julia Whelan. I am Jordan. I'm Sarah And I'm Chris. And we're going to get started right after these messages. Okie dokie. Welcome back, everybody, to another
Vacations and Reading as Travel
00:01:05
Speaker
episode. So happy to have you for this fun little mid-January vacation that we've got. Do you watch Fallout? Yeah. Okay. When you said okie dokie, it reminded me of Fallout. Oh, okie dokie. Hey, Fallout. Yes, I love Fallout. What is a vacation? I'm not sure I understand these words.
00:01:23
Speaker
ah Anybody afford those things anymore? I thought that was a thing from our parents' generation. Well, that's why we read is to go on vacations in our mind. So basically, if you read this book, you can travel all over the world for the mere price of $9.99 on Kindle. But the food will make you so hungry.
00:01:41
Speaker
Yes, it did. She talks about it all these places. Beignets. Man, I'm starving all sudden. I know. It's got real hunkering to go to New Orleans now. It's always been on my bucket list.
00:01:54
Speaker
Yeah.
Overview of Poppy and Alex's Story
00:01:55
Speaker
So Emily Henry wrote the book, People We Meet on Vacation, and the book follows magnetic opposites attract friendship between travel-obsessed Poppy Wright and the pragmatic homebody Alex Nielsen. Told through alternating timelines, the novel explores the trips that define their relationship and the one summer that threatens to change change everything. Dun-dun-dun.
00:02:17
Speaker
yeah um So yeah, this book is really fun. um I don't usually read contemporary novels, like I've said before. I'm big into fantasy. But this was really fun. It was really cute. It was good. And I like how it still kind of felt a little fantastical in the way that you were able to travel all over the world. It still felt like like what I crave when I read a book is going somewhere that I've never been before. And so reading a book that's all about vacation and traveling I still got that out of the book, um even though it was contemporary. But what were your guys' initial thoughts on the book and how'd you like it? Just realized her name is Poppy Wright and she's a writer. That seems kind of on the nose, doesn't it?
00:02:57
Speaker
little bit. Okay. I thought the book was good. i really wasn't sure about it at first. I've kind of put these books off for a while thinking I hear good things about them, but they were rom-com kind of style books that I wasn't sure about. But overall, I honestly loved both the book and the movie and thought they were great and definitely looking into her other books to read soon.
Dual Timeline and Storytelling Techniques
00:03:19
Speaker
I've read Emily Henry before. I've read this book before. i think this was my first Emily Henry, and i then I think I've read Book Lovers was my other one.
00:03:27
Speaker
And I was excited to see the movie. It was a cute rom-com. I love a dual timeline book. It's one of my favorite tropes or styles of writing. I always want to know, like the buildup is so good. I love a dual timeline. So I thought the movie did a good job of going back and forth and keeping the mystery going. um And of course the book did a phenomenal job of like, what happened two summers ago? I need to know. yep Out of time is always fun.
00:03:55
Speaker
Yeah, it was really fun switching back and forth. And like as they're like talking about what happened two summers ago, and then you're going 12 summers ago and building up into it until you finally everything collides. And you're like, oh my gosh, it's so cool. I thought the book had a really great blend of romance and comedy and drama and a rom-com drama situation. It was really good, really fun. um And then the movie did
Performance Analysis of Leads
00:04:19
Speaker
all that too. It hit all the all all the right notes for me at least and let's get into this movie let's get into our characters so ah Chris mentioned the pun of Poppy Wright our main female character and in the movie she's played by Emily Bader and what did we think of Emily's performance I thought she was great. I thought, i think she's a fantastic actress. I don't think I've seen anything else she's been in, but I definitely want to follow her career. I think she has really good comedic chops. So I'm excited to see what her next big project is going to be. i thought she did a really good job ah playing Poppy and that really adventurous, charismatic character. um And yeah, like I said, I'm excited to see where this actress goes. Yeah, she's got the charisma to like carry a a comedy TV show even or something like that if they wanted to. put i would say so. She definitely could pull off a a Brooklyn Nine-Nine style show or something like that that has all those right timing moments.
00:05:15
Speaker
But yeah, I really enjoyed her in this role. She definitely is someone I definitely will follow too. Yeah, I think she did a great job as well. And then we've got Alex Nielsen, played by Tom Blythe Hunger Games fame. He starred as Coriolanus Snow in Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Super different role.
00:05:36
Speaker
I like struggled at first like seeing him without like the bleached Draco Malfoy white blonde hair. i was like is this like, this is weird. I don't like it. But he did a great job as well. Like both of them, like listeners, I watched the movie first before I read the book.
00:05:51
Speaker
Big crime. I i know. i know. But it had to happen that way. And so like the movie, I was like, these people are really weird. Like she's a lot and he's like very stiff. But that's exactly how they're written. And so I think they both did a great job of like making the like stiffness of the page characters come to life and feel like normal, like he's just very reserved. So I think he did a great job on that part.
00:06:15
Speaker
Not to get too far ahead, but I'm excited when we get into the plot in the next episode because k Chris and I had already read the book. We all watched it together. Listeners, we did a live watch, which you are more than welcome to join us on the next one. But it was just the three of us this time, and we were all talking as we were watching it and like getting our opinion on on these characters and getting Jordan's opinion on these characters without having read the book. So I'm excited to see...
00:06:40
Speaker
if things that you said while we were watching the movie changed at all, um, or thoughts on these characters changed at all when you got to read about them. As far as Alex goes, I don't think he was stiff enough in the film. I think Tom could play them almost too cool. He was a little, He felt like a character that was like, you're, you know you're already too cool for her for the story. I need you to be more of the awkward outsider than you were. But I think he pulled off what they did, what they were trying to do in the film well enough. But it was not quite the same character as the book, that's for sure.
00:07:14
Speaker
He's definitely not who I pictured as Alex. I pictured somebody like just taller. i don't know if it's mentioned in the book, but I always imagined him with glasses in the book. like Very studious, like your your typical like library nerd. I don't know. So to have Tom Blythe, I mean, I think for a movie, you have to get the superstars and he's up and coming right now. Like you said, he was just in The Hunger Games. Yeah.
00:07:38
Speaker
And he's definitely your typical rom-com male lead. I thought he worked for the film. I think their chemistry was really great, but just not what I imagined when I was reading the book. Yeah, i same I think he was originally described with lighter, like sandy blonde hair. So that was weird.
00:07:58
Speaker
Yeah, because he was like, he has super dark hair in the movie. And then, yeah, he he, I don't know, sometimes he felt really like shy, but like in like a standoffish kind of way versus like shy in the nerdy way, like what you're talking about, Sarah. So but I think that probably has more to do with like the direction and the script than like him. but yeah, I mean, an interesting choice for to play that part.
00:08:26
Speaker
didn't feel like you would read a Didn't feel like he's the kind of guy that would be reading a book and um in a bar. so that's you know And that was kind of the book. so No. Yeah.
Character Portrayal Comparisons
00:08:36
Speaker
Yeah. No. he He felt more jockey in the movie, to be honest. um And like we'll get into it and at the end.
00:08:45
Speaker
We felt he was like a little bit more aggressive than think he was in the book. And even in the first scene in the car, I felt like he was a little bit more... you know dicky than he is in the book like in the book i think he's just very just like flat and monotone and just straight to the point but like in the movie he's like rolling his eyes and huffing and puffing and i'm like let's tone it down a little bit tom yeah he's like more ah actively frustrated by poppy in the movie than in the book he's just like even if he is that frustrated he just he's very much internalizing it so yeah that's probably a big difference Next up, we've got Sarah Torval. She's played by Sarah Catherine Hook. And so Sarah is Alex's on-again, off-again girlfriend from their hometown.
00:09:30
Speaker
And she and Poppy are super different. very And I think when we were watching the movie, i mean I was like, immediately don't like her immediately. She's not my vibe. She's not I'm not a fan of her. And then like, she kind of I understood where she was coming from and why she was acting the way that she was acting. And so I think that the the actress did a great job of like playing that role of like, you know that there's something going on with your boyfriend and his best friend who's a girl, but like they say there's not and they're like in reality, there hasn't been anything going on, but you just have that gut instinct that like something's not right. And I think she she played that really well. So think she was fine.
00:10:10
Speaker
She's not like a huge character. She's in one like physically and maybe one or two chapters. I thought the actress did fine. There's not much to her character other than being Alex's off and on partner. They changed a lot about like circumstances of her that I was like, I don't know you needed to change that. Like she was supposed to have worked with them library wasn't actually supposed to have been from their hometown. moved there to take a job the school he worked at, things like that. And then she worked at the school as well in the book versus in the movie. She's going to go into real estate and then she ends up as a flight attendant to just like things like that that didn't need to change. I don't feel like, but did. And that was fine. They still played the hit the points they needed to hit, but they definitely changed certain parts of, how they used her. The actress, I think she did fine. I mean, she played the part she was supposed to play and I thought that was good. Nothing really all that memorable about her in my opinion, but she was going to hit those points she needed to hit. So then we have Swapna played by Jamila Jamil and she is Poppy's boss at R&R. Reading Swapna, you get a little bit more of her than you do in the movie. I love her. Like I have a boss like her. I hope that I'm a boss like her. Like she like really, she's very like,
00:11:22
Speaker
we've got a business to run and we've got things to do and, you know, missions to accomplish, but she cares about her team and she really cares about Poppy and mentors her. And so I really love that. And I think Jamila Jamil did a great job of like bringing that firm, like stern caring forward. Yeah. I mean, Jamila Jamil can do no wrong. and I don't really think I i think, you nailed it on the head. I don't have anything to add. ah I think she's a great boss and Jamila really did a good job of portraying that.
00:11:53
Speaker
Yep, definitely love her. um She reminded me of when I watched Supergirl, the boss of Cat Grant at the newspaper that Supergirl worked for, reminded me of her a lot of the way as she played that character of this boss that knows everything and is willing to um be friends with their coworker with with her employees, but will is still firm and has a good way of talking to them and bantering. Definitely a very good girl boss, played it well. And so then we've got ah Poppy's best friend, Rachel, played by Alice Lee. Her role is super cut down for the movie. She's literally one scene. But I think the scene was fun and she was great. I almost wonder if they should have combined those two characters and just made her boss that character that was also her friend in that moment. Like, you know, you probably could have eliminated that role, but it, yeah, the actress did fine. It was a good, funny scene. She had a few phone calls with her, I think throughout, but it was, yeah. And the, in the book, she is, it has a little more to do. I think you're right, Chris. They could have just confined those characters. There was no need to make a whole nother character for what they did in the film. Yeah. I mean, the scene that they're in together is funny. Like,
00:13:02
Speaker
And it reflects um the scene in the boat in Canada with Alex, like the shouting over the noise. And it made sense and it was funny. But yeah, definitely like you you could have totally cut it into what really changed anything. And so then we've got David, who is Alex's little brother. He's played by Miles Heiser. And again, another very, like very small kind of role. We don't see him a lot. They make hear him directly friends with ah Poppy and calling her and inviting her and you know, some of those things were changes, but I think he played it well. I feel like they cut out one of the brothers because there was in the book, three brothers, I think, and this there was two. That's so too, right? But that didn't matter too much to the story. They told a good story. And I think he did a job as that role. I mean, I think all the roles in this were well done. So I kind of feel like I'm just, you know, kind of ah parroting the same thing of, yeah, they're all they've all been great. But I think he, yeah, played that role.
00:13:59
Speaker
brother getting married that you know and is trying to um avoid all some drama but also needs somebody as their ah foil to bring their family out so it needs poppy there and wants his brother to be happy think you did well yeah i think there was uh alex has three younger brothers in the book so i think they eliminated the two middle brothers that were already married and had kids and stuff and so they just left it as alex and david again makes sense for the movie and i don't think we even met we didn't meet them in the book so I'll kind of speed run through these last couple. We've got Buck, played by Lucas Gage. So he is like the main guy from like the hippie commune that we see in Canada. And one of the first, one of the early flashbacks from when Alex and Poppy are still in college. And then we've got Trey. He's played by Lucian Laviscount. he plays poppy's boyfriend in the tuscany summer era um he in the book he's a photographer for the same company that poppy works for where she she writes the articles he takes the photos i think in the movie they said he was like some sort of model or something right i thought it was still photographer no he is okay and then poppy's parents played by molly shannon and alan ruck they were fun I think everybody hit their marks, did great. I loved her parents. I thought they were super fun. Definitely like quirky. Midwest parents. Yeah.
00:15:19
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's um we can note that they did cut out one of Poppy's boyfriend's beauty arimo from the film. So but they didn't even really get into that relationship at all.
00:15:31
Speaker
um They kind of just focused on Trey as her not good for you boyfriend, um which again was fine. They only had two hours to work with. So they did have to something. Making Sarah his ah girlfriend from the beginning, too, was different from the book they had in the book. He was too shy to even like it was a library friend that he wasn't willing to ask out at first and eventually got around asking out in the book he or in the movie they. make them together from their hometown and back and forth that way. So that relationship changed a little bit, but was ultimately a movie versus book ah timing. Yeah. Just some timing things. And I think Poppy has two boyfriends before Trey Guillermo and Julian, I think.
00:16:19
Speaker
And so I think Julian and Guillermo kind of got, combined into the one guy in New Orleans in that scene of the movie. Yeah. But even that, and we'll talk about that, I'm sure. Oh, yeah. i forgot. We did see another guy. The guy that shows up on the doorstep, right? Yeah, that guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So, yeah.
00:16:38
Speaker
Okay. So, they did it. They did they they still cut out one boyfriend, but Like you said, they combined kind of the two characters into that guy. Yeah. yeah Right. So, okay. So it's kind of hard to talk about the differences in the characters without kind of talking about the plot.
00:16:56
Speaker
So we'll try to keep it brief. But what do we think about some of the major differences between Poppy in the book and Poppy in
Pacing and Depth in Adaptation
00:17:05
Speaker
the movie? I just felt like everything was kind of rushed, especially the ending and their like epiphanies if you will um i mean i thought alex really has one but poppy's transformation at the end and like her realization about what she really wants in life was just kind of like not that it came out of nowhere and they get their relationship too i don't know i felt like ah we'll get into this more probably in the next episode but i felt like the two summers ago
00:17:35
Speaker
The changes that they made, i just feel like the second half of the movie was way too fast. And like I even think even a half an hour would have like added, like two and a half hours, would have made it a lot better. We could have gotten a lot more growth in that second half of the story. Yeah, I felt like she definitely felt pretty close the character. But yeah, there seemed to be things missing from the story that you kind of don't get to grow the same way as you see in the book. And I think Alex kind of got most of his emotional storyline kind of yanked out. I feel like he doesn't get to grow the same way she does. He's just this prop in the movie that feels like he's not changing, just waiting for her to make up her mind, which is fine. But in the book, he also has a lot of push and pull and a lot of growth that he has to go through. When you read it, Poppy, like from the beginning, she always says that there's like this 5% of what if with Alex. She always kind of has that 5% of a little crush on him, like
00:18:33
Speaker
we could go on. And then sometimes it gets up to like 15-ish percent and then she tries to stifle it back down to two. um So I don't think that like the directors and the writers put that out enough in the beginning of the movie to make the ending of the movie make sense, especially when they are going to have to rush it for time. She doesn't seem to give any indication in like the flashbacks that she likes Alex that way like she has a crush on him she wants to be with him like romantically it just kind of like when they're in Barcelona you know for David's wedding it all kind of comes out of nowhere a little bit
00:19:10
Speaker
Versus, like I said in the book, there is the 10 years of buildup on her end as well as on his end. And then, yeah, Chris, like you said, like he, like his background with his mom and like how he had to, he was the parentified older sibling to his younger brothers, like growing up and like why he is the way he is because he has to be the, you know, the emotional support for the whole family. And that's why he's so closed off because he's never been able to express his emotions safely at home. like all of that did get kind of taken away or like shrunk so much that you kind of didn't even notice it. And so, yeah, I think that was harmful for his character growth as well, which, which sucks. I do think there's one moment in the film where you see Poppy kind of like realize he's attract attractive and that is at the camp when he comes up butt naked and she's like, Oh, you are like fit or whatever she says. Um,
00:20:04
Speaker
And i I feel like I'd have to watch it again. I mean, Chris, you've seen it twice. You can let us know. But I feel like that's really the only sign we have of her being remotely attracted to him up until the present day stuff. Yeah, I don't think she lets herself acknowledge it. I think that she ah finds him to be fun to be around. She gives all the signs, but I don't think she has the emotional availability to accept that they could be anything more at that point. So she likes him but and likes having him around, but isn't willing to lose him that way. so which makes sense in the film. I get, I get that. ah The therapy that's missing from the end is a little bit, would have been nice to see, or they even a comment about, they both started going to therapy as part of the process of actually getting to know who they are so they can be together. But we don't see that. Yeah. I wish that would have been brought up as well. Cause I think it like, I know it's a fiction story and so that it's going to have that little bit of a fantastical element to it where like everything works out and we all have a happy ending and we we kiss in the rain and it's fine. But I think like showing that they were both flawed people who, you know, had made mistakes and had handled situations poorly and they, you know, wanted to work on themselves and get that help and like, you know,
00:21:19
Speaker
take accountability for their for their actions and who they are as people and heal. And then they were able to talk and work things out and come together. I think that would have been like a really valuable thing to put in a movie that like this. And especially one where like Emily Henry is super popular amongst like her readers and even people who, Don't read contemporary novels. Know how Emily Henry's books and what she's about. And so I think like having that message in a movie like this where you're probably going to get a lot of viewership would have been really valuable thing. Would have been a great plot device at the end if that's who they were telling the story to together or something like they were talking to their couples therapist or something and they were actually working on themselves. That would have been helpful. Yeah, that would have been really cool too.
00:22:04
Speaker
Yeah. All right. Well, that's kind of it for our big characters. Does anybody have anything else that they want to talk about as far as characters and like things that got changed about how the characters were played?
00:22:18
Speaker
What about the couple that they are parallel with? And i I think it was in the New Orleans one. Bob and Tracy. Yes. Or Stacy. ah Stacy, i think.
00:22:28
Speaker
I think it's Stacy. Yeah. The other newlyweds. Because they're really the only people we meet on vacation, I think. Yeah. Well, Buck was met on the whole commune was met on vacation. i felt like that was one thing about the title that didn't make sense. it is Because I felt like very little of what she does actually is meeting people on vacation. There's a couple of them, but not that many.
00:22:47
Speaker
I liked it, actually, because reading reading it, and they talk about in the movie, like, Vacation Alex versus, like, Regular Alex.
Conclusion and Social Media Plugs
00:22:54
Speaker
But then in the book, there's different, other different versions of Alex. There's Naked Alex, which is like, his true self that he reveals to her, like, in those small private moments. And then there's, like, literally Naked Alex when they go skinny dipping and he loses his clothes. like those are the people we meet on vacation it's the different versions of ourselves whoever you want to be in like yeah who you are in new orleans is different from who you are in san francisco different from barcelona from italy from all these things like you know you just you can be like she opens the beginning of the book and the beginning of the movie with why like you can be whoever you want to be on vacation because you're never going to see these people again and so like discovering these different versions of yourself those are the people you meet on vacations
00:23:35
Speaker
So is there going to be a honeymoon Jordan soon? Yeah, girl. Is that one going to be different for you? just Yeah, and honeymoon Jordan's got a drink package. There you go. We're going to find out. you going to find a couple and just lie to them about something just to be the person you want to be?
00:23:49
Speaker
i might now just for funsies just to see how it goes. But we will have to remember everything we say to keep it up for a week. Fair enough, yeah. Yeah, I might. Well, we'll see what people we become on vacation someday.
00:24:03
Speaker
Yeah, we'll see what versions of ourselves we are when we finally meet in person. All right. Well, I think that's it. Thank you for joining us on this episode one of People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry. This is Bookwatch. I'm Jordan. That's Sarah Day. And that's Chris.
00:24:19
Speaker
And we'll see you next week.
00:24:25
Speaker
That's a wrap for this week's episode of Book Watch. We hope you enjoy diving into the world of page-to-screen adaptations with us. If you love this episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave a rating and review wherever you listen, and share it with a fellow book and movie lover.
00:24:39
Speaker
If you prefer to watch along, you can check out the show on YouTube, youtube.com slash at bookwatchpodcast. You can follow the show on Instagram at bookwatchpodcast. And you can follow me, Sarah Day, on Instagram at captain.mcd. That's M-C-D-E-E.
00:24:59
Speaker
And you can follow me, Jordan, on Instagram at jjcorrito. That's C-A-R-R-I-D-O. And you can follow me, Chris, at cyborgnight404. That's night with a K.
00:25:11
Speaker
You can also join the conversation in the Bookwatch Lounge on Facebook at facebook.com slash groups slash bookwatch lounge. If you'd like to support the podcast, you can join the Patreon at patreon.com slash bookwatch podcast. Tiers start at only $4 a month, and we would love to have you over there. Have a favorite adaptation you'd like us to cover or a book you think deserves a screen adaptation or just want to let us know of any feedback. Send us an email at bookwatchpodcast at gmail.com.
00:25:40
Speaker
Until next time, keep reading, keep watching, and we will see you next week.