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You've Got Mail Customer Reviews (46 - 48 of 71 Reviews)

The ultimate feel-good movie
If you look up the word "adorable" in the dictionary, you will see a picture of Meg Ryan. It's true; try it! She is so precious in this film that everyone will fall in love with her. She is the kind of girl that women want for their best friend and men drool over. Tom Hanks' photo can be found under the word "perfect," as in understanding, loving, mature, and funny. Put the two of them together and "You've Got Mail" is the ultimate feel-good movie.

Hanks plays the big, bad chain book store owner who moves into the neighborhood and drives poor little bookshop owner Ryan out of business. Neither realizes they are, in fact, the secret e-mail admirers they've been pouring their hearts out to for months. He finds out first, builds a solid friendship with her, and when she discovers the wonderful secret, all's right with the world.

Yes, it's corny and totally predictable. It's also about an hour too long, but one overlooks this when enjoying the sight of two such beautiful people finding true love. The gorgeous location photography helps set the fairy tale mood; New York City never looked lovelier. The city takes on a cozy, small-town feel, where it seems perfectly possible for two strangers to meet and fall in love. The lovely soundtrack, made up of soft rock and bittersweet ballads, adds to the romance.

I recommend this film as a romantic date movie or a girls-night-out flick. It's silly and wonderful, and Meg and Tom are so right together.

Bouquets of sharpened pencils, indeed
Here's the main and completely irrelevant reason to love this movie: New York City in the fall. Honestly, it should have no bearing whatsoever on the plot, but it does -- and it's impossible not to fall in love with the bright, sunshiny, orange-leaved sheer beauty of the city encapsulated in this movie. Without even resorting to shots of Central Park in all its glory (and really, who can resist that?), "You've Got Mail" takes you on a lovely scenic tour of the Upper West Side, Starbucks and all. Who can resist the street fairs, the parks, the stores, the dock? It's picture-perfect, and if it's a bit surreal, I won't admit it: New York really is rather lovely in the fall.

Aside from making me want to run away to the Big Apple and work in the children's section at Fox Books, "You've Got Mail" also features Meg Ryan at her most adorable ("Aren't daisies just the friendliest flower?"), Tom Hanks at his most charming, and a terrific supporting cast (Greg Kinnear and those typewriters!). The story, a modernized little "remake" of "The Shop Around The Corner", is more fairy tale than realism -- two people fall in love over email, in war in real life, and however can such a thing be solved -- but it's an enchanting story nonetheless. In a time when romance on the web seems all-too-seedy and in reality, sometimes frankly dangerous, this little tale of two people sharing their most intimate thoughts long before they share a single glance is like a breath of fresh air. Sure, the technology's a little faded, but the magic's still there.

You¿ve got corn syrup
Director Nora Ephron is obviously the kind of woman who believes you can't be too cute. I mean this is one cute movie. To begin with, Meg Ryan practically defines cuteness. Even at thirtysomething she is cute enough to fawn over, bless her heart; and Jean Stapleton as her bookkeeper and her mother's bookkeeper-adorable. The clever old gal even bought Intel at six-just adorable! And can Tom Hanks ever handle this? Play a male lead with property and money and a bad dye job? Piece of cake. I mean, just behave and you are plenty eligible and totally adorable yourself. Throw in a dog and some cute kids and a fairy tale New York, and what have you got? You've got corn syrup! That's what you've got. My lord, even Dabney Coleman is cute in this! (And don't you just love the way his bad dye job mustache matches Hanks' bad dye job hairdo?)

This is a diabolical, cynical seduction of sappy-hearted lovers everywhere. Indulge. This is femme porn. Bring a box of Kleenex (actually the Ephrons anticipated this and put a few on screen, bless their hearts) and some bon-bons. Know that the female lead will find true love, money and life-long security simultaneously after going through some real fun misdirections en route. Muggers in New York? AIDS? Cockroaches? Crack cocaine? Summer swelters? Dirty snow? Garbage strikes? Smelly, polluted Hudson? Odoriferous poverty? I mean, get real! Even the two roommates that our lovers dump are going to live happily ever after. Do we experience heartaches? Does love bite? Diss off! This is the yellow brick road in Olde New York, and it feels just like mainlining heroin.

Best line: As Hanks reveals himself to Meg he uses her email handle and says, "Don't cry, Shopgirl" while the sound track prompts our tears with "Somewhere over the Rainbow." I mean, this is a BIG HANKY kind of movie!

In summation, the "cute" speed limit was greatly exceeded in this Pollyannish feel-gooder, and I am imposing the following fine on Director Nora Ephron: 200 hours of community service in the ladies powder room of the Bronx welfare office, and a promise never to do anything like this again, no matter how great the temptation.

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