Solid: Emily Bader, Tom Blyth
Director: Brett Haley
Ranking: ★★.5
Tailored from a bestselling novel by Emily Henry, Individuals We Meet on Trip arrives with the form of built-in goodwill most romantic comedies would kill for. It’s shiny, sunlit, comfortably acquainted and aware of the style it inhabits. Launched within the lifeless of winter, the movie clearly desires to perform as a warm-weather fantasy — a soft-focus reminder of seashores, dangerous selections and higher timing. What it doesn’t fairly handle is to show that familiarity into feeling.
At its core, it is a romance that is aware of precisely the place it’s headed and makes little effort to faux in any other case. The issue isn’t predictability — romcoms thrive on it — however how dutifully the movie goes by motions we’ve seen executed with way more wit and emotional texture elsewhere.
The story follows Poppy, a journey author whose globe-trotting profession has begun to really feel emptier than the postcards recommend, and Alex, her polar reverse: rooted, cautious and content material with a smaller radius of life. After assembly in school, the 2 strike an annual pact — one trip collectively yearly — a ritual that stretches throughout almost a decade of missed probabilities, close to confessions and romantic detours. Once they reunite for a marriage after a protracted estrangement, the movie toggles between previous journeys and present-day awkwardness, inching towards a conclusion nobody within the room doubts.
The nice
The movie’s best asset is its ease. The chemistry between the leads, whereas by no means electrical, is light sufficient to maintain issues watchable. Their dynamic works finest in quieter moments — shared glances, small jokes, silences that recommend a deeper familiarity than the script usually earns. There’s additionally plain polish in the way in which the movie appears: sun-drenched places, postcard-ready frames and a color palette that screams escapism. A handful of supporting performances briefly inject life and humour, hinting at a sharper movie lurking someplace beneath the floor.
The dangerous
For a narrative constructed round journey, the movie is oddly incurious about place. Cities blur into backdrops, experiences really feel interchangeable, and wanderlust is extra implied than felt. Structurally, the fixed back-and-forth in time provides muddle with out deepening character, and the central battle — why these two folks don’t merely select one another sooner — feels more and more contrived. The writing leans closely on romcom shorthand: opposites entice, emotional avoidance, third-act readability. What ought to really feel lived-in as a substitute feels assembled.
The decision
Individuals We Meet on Trip is nice, competently made and largely hole. It affords consolation with out consequence, romance with out actual ache, and journey with out discovery. For a lazy watch, it does the job. For something extra, it by no means fairly leaves the departure gate.