People We Meet On Vacation is the rom-com I've been waiting years for

There's a certain magic you feel when you watch a true rom-com. I'm talking about the greats here - When Harry Met Sally, How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Notting Hill, You've Got Mail, Bridget Jones's Diary... I could name so many more. The feeling you get when watching these films is a special kind of comfort. For years, people turned their noses up at rom-coms and dismissed them as menial chick flicks that teenage girls and moms only cared for, but they're so much more than that. They're the kind of movies that make you feel safe, hopeful, and that make life feel bright again, even if it is only for two hours.

I have watched many rom-coms over the years, but none of them have captured that feeling quite like People We Meet on Vacation. As someone who adores Emily Henry's work, I knew we were in good hands because she respects the rom-com genre the way Nora Ephron did. I truly believe Henry has managed to craft books that honour the work of Nora Ephron and Nancy Meyers, while bringing her own wit, charm, and lovable characters to the page, and now the screen.

People We Meet On Vacation follows unlikely friends Poppy and Alex, who are forced to share a ride home from college, and by the end of it, a pact is formed: every year, one vacation together. However, everything goes wrong one summer, and they're left wondering if their friendship will ever be mended. This summer, Poppy reaches out to Alex and asks him to join her for one last trip, but will it be the trip that makes them realise they're not 'just friends' after all?

My hopes were high for the Netflix adaptation, but once Tom Blyth and Emily Bader were revealed as our leads, I knew they'd portray Alex and Poppy perfectly. They managed to breathe even more life into the Poppy and Alex we fell in love with in the book, and proved to everyone that they were made for this movie. Bader was as charming as Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail, and Blyth as endearing as Domhnall Gleeson in About Time. Their infectious chemistry, charm, and deep understanding of Henry's characters will make you fall in love with them and their friendship immediately.

The friends-to-lovers trope is one we've adored for years, but Blyth and Bader's chemistry has revived the tale as old as time. Alex and Poppy feel like the people in your friend group you've been secretly rooting for all along. Their connection, sexual chemistry, and history bounce off the screen and completely capture you for the two-hour runtime. This is a rom-com about longing, yearning, and the complexities of falling for someone who has always been 'just a friend'.

Rom-coms have always been the movies I turn to when we feel hopeless, heartbroken and lost, but they're the ones that leave me feeling lighter and hopeful, and that's exactly what People We Meet On Vacation did. It left me with tears in my eyes, a smile on my face, and an even deeper love for this remarkably underrated genre. I just wish the film got the theatrical release it deserved because there's nothing quite like seeing a love story like this on the big screen.

People We Meet On Vacation is full of warmth, the most tender friendship, beautiful writing, and honours Emily Henry's best-selling novel in the most perfect way. It's a perfect nod to the classic rom-coms I fell in love with, but one that I'll happily rewatch as many times as When Harry Met Sally. I was worried nobody would manage to capture the magic of Harry and Sally's friendship, or find leads with Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey's chemistry, or pen a script as tender as Notting Hill, but People We Meet On Vacation has it all.

Emily Henry may very well save the rom-com genre after all.

People We Meet On Vacation is streaming on Netflix now.