You've Got Mail
Directed by Nora Ephron (Sleepless in Seattle)
Written by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron (Mixed Nuts)
Starring Tom Hanks (Saving Private Ryan), Meg Ryan (When Harry Met Sally), Parker Posey (Coneheads), Greg Kinnear (As Good as it Gets)
As Reviewed by James Brundage
Some people feel the need to do something more than once (i.e. Gus Van Sant with Psycho). Some people feel the need to re-unite actors (i.e. Edward Burns). Some people feel the need to re-hash a plot (take your pick of any number of movies). But only a select few can pull it off.
Nora Ephron, Tom Hanks, and Meg Ryan have graduated into that select cadre with You've Got Mail.
The plot is a carbon-copy of Sleepless in Seattle, their earlier collaboration: a man and a woman are completely in love with one another without ever having direct contact in a romantic sense. In Sleepless in Seattle, it was a radio broadcast late at night that turned Meg Ryan on to Tom Hanks. In You've Got Mail, we have fully entered the electronic world and this time the two meet in an AOL over 30 chatroom. The two of them begin corresponding via the electronic medium while hashing it out in real life. Tom Hanks is Joe Fox, book mogul and owner of the new Fox Books superstore in the Upper West Side. Meg Ryan is Kathleen Kelly, your average Upper West Side indepdent bookstore owner challenging the conglomerates springing up around her.
If you've seen Sleepless in Seattle, you already know where this will end up. In fact, it ends up just about where every other one of these romantic comedies ends up: the boy gets the girl. Along the way there's the radical difference (and the differences, I remind you, are all that matter nowadays), that the two people in love are fully using the electronic medium: not to mention committing Internet infidelity at the same time (Tom Hanks cheating on Parker Posey, Meg Ryan cheating on Greg Kinnear). If that wasn't enough to make it different, this one adds in the nice aspect of character development.
All of us who care -- smart people, movie critics, patrons of romances rather than action films -- will be much more pleased that we finally see a movie where the characters are cared about and not you equation romances. We can actually fall in love along with them. In this aspect, because of the fact that the two main characters are seen both inside and outside of the context of their romance, it actually far surpasses Sleepless in Seattle, which, to be honest, was somewhat lacking.
So, all you romantic comedy fans, go ahead and stop by the local multiplex and get your mail. You may just be surprised what it says.
Movie Reviews by James Brundage
Movie Reviews starting with "Y"
Berge Garabedian's Review of You've Got Mail
Sridhar Prasad's Review of You've Got Mail
Related Reviews:
Tom Hanks:
Sridhar Prasad's Review of Forrest Gump
James Brundage's Review of Saving Private Ryan
Scott Nowlin's Review of Saving Private Ryan
Sridhar's Prasad's Review of Saving Private Ryan
James Brundage's Review of That Thing You Do
Meg Ryan:
Berge Garbedian's Review of City of Angels
Greg Kinnear: