Why Watching People We Meet On Vacation As An Introvert Made Me Want To Leave One Character At A Gas Station

I know it’s still early days for the 2026 movie schedule, but if you thoroughly enjoy some of the best romantic comedies, then you’re probably already hoping and praying that the next eleven and a half months will actually bring some choice options our way. I’m in that camp, so I didn’t even have to read any critics’ reviews of People We Meet on Vacation (which you can watch with a Netflix subscription) to decide to check it out. Unfortunately, it set off my Introvert Radar on several occasions, to the point where I really wanted to abandon one character at a gas station.

Which People We Meet On Vacation Character Did I Want To Abandon And Why?

Look, I completely understand the opposites attract theory of romantic comedies, as well as the tried and true friends-to-lovers trope. They’ve worked for films like When Harry Met Sally, 13 Going On 30 and numerous other beloved rom-coms, so I knew what I was in for when wild “free-spirit” (we’ll get into the quote marks on that in a bit) Poppy and the more subdued Alex were first introduced as strangers who went to the same college and were also from the same small town who end up road tripping home together.

However, it didn’t take long for me to become positively enraged by one character, and that then continued for much of the movie. If you’ve already guessed that Poppy made me angry, congrats! Maybe you’re an introvert who hates having your boundaries pushed too much and too often, as well!

The Movie Wants To Tell A Story Of Alex Slowly Opening Up Because Of Poppy’s Influence, But That’s Not What I Saw

From the very second Alex gently implored Poppy to “be careful” with her huge burrito in his car, and she dismissed his concerns with a stank-eyed “dude, I got it,” I absolutely hated her. Poppy is the kind of character who will walk into your house and casually put her feet up on your coffee table with her outside shoes on, alright? She might not be sure that she’s doing everything in life correctly, but she is sure that she’s doing everything better than you.

As soon as her burrito burst into bits all over the car (I reject any notion that any part of that was Alex’s fault for stopping suddenly), I thought to myself, “I’m leaving this bitch on the side of the road.” But then, I thought better of it and realized that I would first make her clean up the mess she made, and then leave her ass behind at whatever gas station we’d stopped at.

On top of that, I know the book-to-screen adaptation wants to show us Poppy helping Alex open up and experience more of the world, seeing as how he admits on that initial trip that he’d never been anywhere other than his hometown and the city where they went to college. That’s a great idea, but not what we were actually shown. What we did see was Poppy constantly push and outright ignore Alex’s boundaries when it came to how, when and why he should come out of his shell, and there’s nothing more frustrating for an introvert.

This led to me seeing Poppy not as the usually lauded-in-the-movies “free spirit” but as what I think she really is, which is kinda an asshole. Like, girl? Do you enjoy Alex’s personality, or not? If the answer is no, then stop hanging out with him!

I understand that this is likely a movie problem, as there simply wasn’t enough time to show Alex and Poppy bond or the natural progression of how Alex became more willing to have new experiences because of his buddy’s influence. But, as an introverted soul who knows what’s right for her, at what time, and given the situation at hand, it still sucked the potential fun out of this movie for me.