One of the pleasures of youth is experiencing the stages and phases and Big Moments of life for the first time. And one of the indulgences of being pre-“thirtysomething” is the feeling that you’re “discovering” or reinventing things earlier generations got to before you.

Netflix has had pretty good luck on teen and collegiate romances — rom-coms, mostly. Hollywood lost its way in that genre and the streaming service has had such films all to itself.

But “People We Meet on Vacation” is confirmation that as much as they’d like to exploit the dirth of (somewhat) more adult romances and rom-coms from theatrical studios, their magic touch doesn’t translate.

“People” is a Sony production without the star power, spark, wit or edge to draw viewers to a cinema. It’s so humorless its “meet cute” is a “meet bored.” The dull narrative meanders through “When Harry Met Sally” imitation flashbacks-through-a-friendship-that-becomes-a-romance structure. It slow walks us through genre cliches towards a finale with a climax confessional — cue the rain — followed by four anti-climaxes because three anticlimaxes weren’t enough.

The leads — Emily Bader (“Fresh Kills” and TV’s “My Lady Jane”) and Tom Blyth (TV’s “Billy the Kid”) — are pretty but stunningly bland, with a director (Brett Haley did “The Hero” and hit a personal best with “Hearts Beat Loud”) who can’t steer them or this lumbering beast clear of the schmaltz that often trips him up.

So whatever the “It’s a MOVIE. Let’s LOVE IT” fankids over at Pubescent Tomatoes say, it’s a drag. That’s also a handicap of youth. The little dears haven’t seen enough good romances to know what works.

The script, based on an Emily Henry novel of a couple of years back, follows small-town Ohio girl Poppy through her years-long connection to hometown boy Alex.

A present day “destination wedding” in Barcelona which travel-writer Poppy may skip because she’ll run into Alex prompts a parade of voice-over-narrated flashbacks that tell of their connections and trips together as “just friends.”

They meet cute (not in the least) when she’s late for the ride-sharing trip home from Boston while both are in college. Half a dozen sitcoms and the late Rob Reiner’s “The Sure Thing” got more heart and humor out of that trapped-in-a-Subaru-together situation.

A college kid of the mid 2010s is into…Paula Abdul?

Somehow, they overcome their disconnection — she’s free spirited and ditzy in an inconsiderate way, he’s predictable and “small town” in the usual uninteresting ways.

As her dream is to travel, she becomes a travel journalist — jetting hither and yon and writing advertiser/destination friendly prose tantalizaing enough to make the reader envious and want to go there herself/himself.

His dream is “home” and “family.”

Over the years, they reconnect and we catch up with their annual friend-trip travels to Canada (Alex is that boring), New Orleans, Prague and elsewhere. We re-meet them and their potential mates. And we ponder why these two good-looking Boston College buckeyes can’t make a love connection.

The overarching theme of the story, postulated by Poppy, is that people “vacation to get away from their lives,” that “Vacation Alex” is thus a lot more interesting — skinny dipping, posing as a married couple, etc. — than “real life” Alex.

Except he isn’t. His declaration that he “doesn’t do stupid s—” ever, much less on vacation, can be taken to heart as the skinny dipping is Hallmark Movie with a hint of Nudity tepid.

Poppy is on a journey to overcome the boredom of perpetually traveling. And another generation discovers that making something you love and dream about your vocation strips some of the joy out of it.

Alex needs to get out of himself and won’t, because tiny Linfield, Ohio beckons, with or without the PhD he works his way into. Poppy? She needs to park her luggage and take care of “life” outside of the jetway.

Haley and three screenwriters neglect the “best friend/sounding board” roles — Alex doesn’t get one at all, basically — overdo the motherly, hip and concerned “fan” travel mag editor/boss role (Jameela Jamil) and leave her promisingly adorable, annoying and sexually hip parents (Molly Shannon and Alan Ruck) behind too soon.

It all feels and plays recycled and watered-down — the longing, the testy edge that’s supposed to signal “sparks,” the heartache of indecision.

The writerly narration is travel-blog bland, and nothing in Poppy’s “written” words tell us she’s the new Hemingway, Bourdain or Pico Iyer.

Maybe Poppy’s got a point, resisting being attracted to this unsurprising, “reliable” and unsophisticated, untraveled potential beau. The fact that the script simply isn’t having it is no reason to sit through this if you’ve ever seen another screen romance.

But if you’re young enough that you haven’t viewed the “modern” benchmark movies of the genre — “The Sure Thing,” “French Kiss” and “When Harry Met Sally” for starters — and you think “Anyone But You” is your high bar, by all means have a go.

Rating: PG-13, nudity, sexual situations, profanity

Cast: Emily Bader, Tom Blyth, Sarah Catherine Hook and Lucien Laviscount, with Alan Ruck and Molly Shannon.

Credits: Directed by Brett Haley, scripted by Yulin Kuang, Amos Vernon and Nunzio Randazzo, based on the novel by Emily Henry. A Sony release on Netflix.

Running time: 1:58