Increasingly, I have felt drawn to films about travel or set in locations far from American shores.  I am sure this is related to my growing unease as to the state of American politics, but let us not dwell on that subject.  What would be great is if there were a film of this sort, which is usually a romantic comedy, where the characters did Catholic pilgrimages.  There is only one film of which I am aware that approaches that topic, which is The Way (2010).  It is not a love story, but rather about a father dealing with the death of his son.  I prefer movies that cover weightier topics, even if they are overwhelmingly not about matters of Faith.  At the same time, one occasionally needs a break, which brings me to examples like The People We Meet on Vacation.  It is full of a bunch of stuff this practicing Catholic usually eschews in relation to modern society.  But it does the trick if you are looking for a cinematic getaway.

Speaking of getaways and The People We Meet on Vacation, Poppy (Emily Bader) is a writer for a travel magazine, getting to jet set around the world and have someone else pay for it.  She is recently returned from an outing and writing her report, but it turns dark.  This is something her boss, Swapna (Jameela Jamil), notices as her prose turns to the possibility of dying alone in a shower, miles from home.  Swapna tells Poppy to clean it up before giving the young reporter her next assignment.  Before heading out again, Poppy returns home where she gets a call from David (Miles Heisner), the brother of her longtime friend Alex (Tom Blyth).  David is getting married in Barcelona and is all but demanding that she attend.  There are two things holding her back from saying yes.  The first problem is that the publication is sending her to Santorini.  Of more emotional weight is the fact that Alex will also be present.  From here, the film goes back and forth in time to establish the relationship between Alex and Poppy, and why them being in the same place might be a cause for trepidation.  Because it all ends up in the same place anyway, I am going to tell it in the correct chronological order.  The two meet in college, having found out that they are from the same town in Ohio.  During a summer break, they decide to drive together, and this is the first time being in each other’s presence.  Immediately, the normally organized Alex is put off by Poppy’s bubbly, spontaneous personality.  They are forced one night along the way to share a hotel room, but any thoughts of romance are quashed by their seeming incompatibility, and the fact that he has a girlfriend, Sarah (Sarah Catherine Hook).  Despite Poppy suggesting that they take a side trip to Canada, her and Alex start a friendship that has them doing that proposed jaunt the following summer when he Sarah breaks up with him.  Her parents behave in a decidedly un-Christian manner, and the less said about what they are encouraging Alex and Poppy to do, the better.  While camping in the country of our neighbors to the north, they are invited to a party with a group of strangers.  Of course, it is Poppy’s idea to go, but she and Alex end up attracted to other people.  The girl who has eyes for Alex, Daisy (Madeleine Akua), invites him to go skinny dipping.  Losing his clothes in the process, he finds his way back to their tents where he interrupts Poppy before she gets into bed with someone.  It is a ridiculous situation, but a bonding one, and from that point on they pledge to take a trip somewhere together every summer.  Their next outing is in New Orleans where they pretend to be newly engaged.  While it works to get them free drinks, it also pushes them closer to romance.  What saves them this time is the appearance of Poppy’s then boyfriend, Nam (Tommy Do).  Following this, they are supposed to go to Norway, but she is prevented from traveling by being sick.  Instead of getting on his plane, Alex comes to Poppy’s place and nurses her.  To make up for the previous summer, the following one they make their way to Tuscany in Northern Italy.  This time, they have their significant others with them.  For Alex, it is Sarah, and at this moment Poppy is with Trey (Lucien Laviscount).  A little after they have dinner, Poppy excuses herself to throw up in the bathroom.  Thinking she is pregnant, she calls Alex to help her.  They get a test together, and when it turns out negative, they nearly kiss.  It is him who stops them this time, and she apologize, saying that she is confused.  The next day, he is engaged to Sarah.  Poppy accuses him of settling and she and Alex part on sour terms.  This brings us to Barcelona.  Naturally, they encounter each other at the airport and they share a taxi to her lodgings.  Upon getting there, they find that her air conditioner is not working.  His attempt at fixing it results in him straining his back, and she insists on him staying the night.  The next day, he invites her to the rehearsal dinner, and she is a hit with his family, and him in particular.  It is that night that they finally admit their feelings for one another, and there are a few unfortunate scenes when they cannot take their hands off one another.  Yet, in the middle of a romantic dance, he insists on discussing the future, something she is not interested in, then or ever.  He says that it will never work, and they return to the United States separately.  Would it surprise you if I said that she realizes she made a mistake?  The film concludes with her tracking him down in Ohio, and them building a life together in New York.

Co-habitation and sex before marriage, drug use, gay weddings, and a few other themes in The People We Meet on Vacation are a few of the aspects of the film that are objectionable to Catholicism.  Luckily, none of them overwhelm the proceedings, though the physical intimacy nearly does.  There is no nudity, but they give into their lust just prior to going to the wedding.  My thought in that moment was, come on, you have a ceremony to get to!  Maybe I am getting old, but it is also a thought motivated by Faith.  Overall, the material is part and parcel of a general cultural malaise that should not necessarily be legislated against, but prayed about and shown a better way by example.  At the same time, there are some sequences that a Catholic can support.  While I did not care for how vacations are described in the beginning, as an opportunity for a person to be whoever they want and do whatever they want, it does provide a teachable moment.  It is God who should form your identity, not the universe as Poppy allows it to do to her, whatever the “universe” means.  Actually, the universe should mean God, and if it did, then her attitude would be far more beneficial for her soul.  Because she has the wrong attitude, she eventually asks the right question: am I broken?  The answer for her, and all of us, is yes.  A resounding yes.  We are all broken this side of the grave.  However, asking it is the first step towards the kind of healing that only God can provide.  Put differently, it is about going home.  That is what she realizes she needs to do by the end.  The path that leads her there takes her to Ohio and Alex.  For us, it is Faith, and how we come to God defines us.

I would not define The People We Meet on Vacation as a great movie.  As I elaborated on in the previous paragraph, it has a lot of material in it that I could do without.  At the same time, there is some restraint to it, which is what makes it palatable.