People We Meet on Vacation is a new romcom for the new year. If you love romcoms I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. It’s a pretty standard issue addition to the genre. This one features two unlikely people who stay friends for years and pretend not to be in love.

People We Meet on Vacation begins when Poppy (Emily Bader) and Alex (Tom Blyth) share a ride home from college to their home town in Ohio. (Echoes of When Harry Met Sally much?) They are clearly incompatible. She’s a manic blabbermouth who wants to travel. He’s a quiet guy who loves his small home town.

By the end of the eventful ride home, they decide to be friends – and only friends. They agree to spend one week a year traveling together as friends. It’s a long long time between this meet cute and the payoff.

As time passes, Poppy works at a travel magazine and gets to travel all the time. Her boss Swapna (Jameela Jamil) complains that the more Poppy travels, the worse her writing gets.

Alex is studying for a Ph.D. and still in college. He wants to teach.

They keep their vacation schedule up for years. They have a great time and then go home alone. Alex sporadically dates his high school sweetheart (Sarah Catherine Hook). Poppy serial dates guys who never last.

Then one year it all stops. The vacations are over. No more seeing each other. Two long years go by. That’s when Poppy gets invited to Alex’s brothers wedding in Barcelona. Does she go? Alex will be there.

By now we’re well into the third act of this movie. We finally get to the admitting love and being lovers part of the story. Then, with mere minutes left in the movie, we cram in the required breakup and makeup for the happy ending.

People We Meet on Vacation seems different, but is actually the same as every other romcom. Exactly what anyone who loves romcoms wants! It’s bright and cheerful and full of fun places to vacation. There are pretty people and a happy ending. Everything you need in a romcom is right there on Netflix. If you give it a watch, please share what you thought.