People We Meet on Vacation has one of those deliciously perfect romantic comedy premises. Poppy (Emily Bader) and Alex (Tom Blyth) are mismatched strangers thrown together by the coincidence of both being college students in Boston (a largely consequence-free change from Chicago in the novel), going back to the same town in Ohio. Their vibes clash immediately. Poppy is gregarious, chatty, and can’t be tied down, Alex is more reserved and already seeing wedding bells with high school sweetheart Sarah (Sarah Catherine Hook). Nonetheless, they become fast friends. Poppy’s travel writing job post-college keeps the two connected despite their disparate goals. Every year, they get together for one week to visit some new cool locale and reaffirm their bond.

Unfortunately, even that eventually falls away. By the start of the film, the two haven’t seen each other in two years. When Alex’s brother David (Miles Heizer) gets married, though, it forces the two back together. As the wedding weekend unfolds, the film alternates between episodes in the present and those set during their past vacations. You can probably guess where these “best friends” end up. But the predictability isn’t the film’s problem. It is how it wastes this near-perfect premise.

The plot sets up two elements that are rom-com gold. First, there is the arc of a strangers to friends to estranged to maybe more than friends. Any rom-com fan worth their salt has a soft spot for those improbable friends who blossom into even more improbable friends. Second, you have that beautiful trope unfolding in locations as varied as New Orleans, Squamish, BC, and Croatia.  This is a recipe for incredible chemistry in visually compelling locations. Sadly, People We Met on Vacation delivers neither.

Bader and Blyth, individually, are charismatic on-screen presences. Both have a gift for physical comedy. Bader nails Poppy’s particular brand of endless energy and increasingly gloomy center, while Blyth, befitting of the restrained Alex, tells the character’s story primarily through excellent facial acting. And god knows they’re both attractive people. However, they generate zero erotic heat or romantic chemistry. Scenes like an impromptu dance performance in a neon New Orleans bar have goofy charm, but the moment the film tries to switch into “will-they-won’t-they” mode, the whole endeavor goes colorless.

Director Brett Haley has done well delivering strong emotional beats—familial, platonic, and romantic—in films like Hearts Beat Loud and All the Bright Places. Alas, he brings little of that verve to the plate. The Yulin Kuang, Amos Vernon, and Nunzio Randazzo screenplay does him no favors. The trio opts to carve out much of the character interactions that aren’t between Poppy and Alex while keeping the characters around. As a result, there are scenes with parents and other friends that feel empty and unmotivated. There’s no material to build a foundation for, say, Poppy’s friendship with Rachel (Alice Lee), undercutting any delights their own big scene together might otherwise provide.

Cinematographer Rob Givens, a frequent collaborator with Haley, delivers a pretty enough visual palette. Still, there’s no depth to the images. They feel like travel brochures, slick but bland. Poppy is a travel writer visiting some nontraditional vacation spots. The visual should match that, and they just don’t. The moments that do stick out feel bizarre rather than compelling, as when two characters wait for the results of a pregnancy test in an empty town square in the middle of the night. Why is most of the movie so flat, while this scene bristles with an energy that feels better-suited to a thriller?

Vacations are essential for recharging and expanding one’s horizons, so this critic would never advise against taking one. In the case of People We Meet on Vacation, though, take the trip on the page, not on the screen.

People We Meet on Vacation pays a visit to the exotic land of streaming called Netflix starting January 9.

People We Meet on Vacation Trailer: