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You've Got Mail Customer Reviews (37 - 39 of 71 Reviews)

Entertaining Romantic Comedy-Lite
You've Got Mail attempts to be a romantic comedy for the end of the 20th Century. Its device is the modern phenomenon of people's meeting over the Internet, but it basically follows a proven Hollywood formula that has been around for decades. In fact, this film is based on a little-known but superior love story called The Shop Around the Corner, made over fifty years ago.

Any picture with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan would be a money maker, because the public found them so perfectly matched a few years ago in Sleepless in Seattle, which itself owed a lot to another decades movie, An Affair to Remember.

While virtually all movie romances could happen only on screen, You've Got Mail is especially improbable. Kathleen [Ryan] and Joe [Tom Hanks] 'meet' in an AOL chat room. They begin exchanging E-mail, but never reveal much about their personal lives. Kathleen owns a children's book store on Manhattan's West Side. Joe and his family build book superstores. They are preparing to open one just a block from Kathleen's little operation.

When Joe and Kathleen meet at a party, they take an instant dislike to each other. Naturally, they do not know that they have become anonymously attracted to each other through the Internet. This is one of the oldest and most successful tricks in Hollywood's book. The audience becomes involved, because it knows a secret the characters do not.

What does not work here is Joe's character. We see that he uses his company to blithely put small independent stores, including Kathleen's, out of business. His father and his grandfather find this amusing, and Joe never shows any signs of disagreeing with them. Yet he becomes Mr. Nice and Mr. Wonderful by the end of the film, without there having been any scenes to truly justify this personality change. Perhaps love does conquer all, but I am not so sure I could fall for a person who wrecked my life, as Kathleen does. Writer and director Nora Ephron may have decided this, too. When the stars finally find out that they are the E-mail lovers, the sound track goes into "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." Gosh, folks, the song seems to say. It's only a movie.

You've Got Mail is impeccably filmed. Ryan and Hanks remain a great screen couple. They simply were not given that much to work with this time. Ironically, Nora Ephron write both Sleepless in Seattle and the even better movie While You Were Sleeping, which Ryan did with Billy Crystal. While You've Got Mail is a pleasant enough film, we would have expected more from such a creative team.

The supporting cast, especially Greg Kinnear and the remarkable comedienne, Posey Parker, is excellent. In certain scenes, their characters threaten to become more interesting than either Joe or Kathleen. Of particular note is the scene in which she is trapped in an elevator with Joe, the elevator operator, and a high society matron. She, Kinnear, Jean Stapleton and Dabney Coleman provide the humor that is oddly absent when Hanks and Ryan are on screen.

A Great Romantic Comedy!
Tom Hanks made this movie right after he finished shooting "Saving Private Ryan", and it was a relief to finally see him in a light-hearted movie after all the serious movies that he's been in. I have to admit that this isn't one of those movies that guys would want to see unless they're forced into buying/renting the movie to watch with their wife/girlfriend. That's the reason I saw the movie, but I have to admit that it's entertaining.

This is the story of two people who have parallel relationships with each other. On the one hand, each is an entrepreneur in the book business. Hanks plays a character named Joe Fox, whose family owns a chain of very large bookstores. Meg Ryan plays Kathleen Kelly, who owns a small "mom-and-pop" bookstore. Joe has just opened one of his bookstores in the same neighborhood as Kathleen's store, and she's losing business as a result. They quickly become adversaries, and Kathleen is very bitter that she's being forced out of business because of Joe's monopoly over the book-selling industry. Kathleen lashes out at Joe and blames him for her failed business, while he maintains that it's "just business" and isn't personal.

On the other hand, these same two people are having an anonymous relationship with each other over the internet. They met in a chat room and have been writing e-mails to each other ever since. They trade stories about their lives and give each other comfort and advice. They soon fall in love and decide that they should meet. Joe finds out that his e-pal and Kathleen are the same person, and he struggles to decide on whether he should tell Kathleen that he is the one who has been e-mail her.

The two things that sets this movie apart from other romantic comedies (a.k.a chick flicks) is that it has two big-name stars, and both of them have previously acted together in another very successful romantic comedy called "Sleepless In Seattle". Those two things are going to draw people to this movie, and once they've gotten their hands on "You've Got Mail", they'll be pleasantly surprised.

I know, I know...
I know what you're thinking. Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Greg Kinnear. You think you're too good for this movie, don't you? It's the sappiest, dumpiest little half-a-flick ever reared by Nora Ephron. Romantic comedies suck. Do I paint a correct picture, or do I exagerate? Well I think you're just cinematically jaded.

Yeah, that's right! I said it!

A lifetime of Vietnam movies and tragic love stories has left you too cynical to enjoy a simple romance between two adults. Teenagers getting into car crashes, mothers being diagnosed with breast cancer, murderers who you like despite the fact that they're pure evil. These are the cinematic icons that appeal to you, yes? Well what about hard-edged bookstore manager and idealistic bookshop owner? What about oddly-principled boyfriend who owns two identical typewriters? What about...uh...Jean Stapleton? She was funny, right?

Look, the point is it doesn't suck and don't judge it just because it's a Hanks/Ryan romantic comedy on par with "Sleepless In Seattle" (Which was a good one too, by the way).

Although, I still prefer the original "Shop Around the Corner" with Jimmy "Not Bow-Legged" Stewart.

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