You've Got Mail

directed by Nora Ephron
Category: "Comedy"
Year of Release:1998
Date Added:12/06/2007
Date Watched:04/30/2005
Description:A remake of The Shop Around the Corner and In the Good Old Summertime.
My Rating:7

Reviews for You've Got Mail

Review - You've Got Mail

Kathleen Kelly owns a children’s bookstore on the West Side of Manhattan. Joe Fox is the younger son of Fox and Son’s mega-bookstore opening just a few doors away. Kathleen is worried that Fox will put her out of business, and in spite of all her efforts to the contrary, it eventually does.

The two meet when Joe brings two small children — his aunt (his grandfather’s daughter) and his brother (his father’s son) — into Kathleen’s store. They meet again at a party where Kathleen finds out Joe is the one putting her out of business.

It just so happens that both Kathleen and Joe are regularly chatting with each other on AOL without knowing who they’re talking to. They get interested in each other and agree to meet. But when Joe arrives at the café and sees that it’s Kathleen he’s come to meet, he doesn’t reveal that he’s her e-mail friend. She tells him to leave and insults him, so he goes.

For no logical reason other than to get them out of the plot (where they had no purpose anyway), Joe’s girlfriend and Kathleen’s boyfriend break up with them. After Kathleen’s shop closes, Joe shows up at her apartment and tells her he’d like to be friends. The hang around together while still continuing the e-mail conversation (where Kathleen still doesn’t know it’s Joe). She tells her e-mail friend she wants to meet him, and when Joe shows up, she tells him she hoped it was him. They kiss and the movie ends.

• This movie is a remake of The Shop Around the Corner and is credited as such at the beginning. The children’s bookstore that Ryan’s character owns is called “The Shop Around the Corner.” The scene where Kathleen is waiting for her friend in the café and Joe shows up was very similar to the same scene in The Shop Around the Corner.

The plot of this movie made more sense than the plot of The Shop Around the Corner. While Tom Hanks may be slightly less appealing than Jimmy Stewart, he’s not bad in the role. Meg Ryan was far superior to Margaret Sullavan. Both Hanks’ and Ryan’s characters were likeable and, while I knew they would get together, I also wanted them to get together. The bookstore setting was one of the best things about the movie. It makes me want to go to a bookstore and buy a stack. But, on the other hand, the move was very slow moving. Nothing actually happened. There were no really funny parts. There were a lot of superfluous characters that were involved with minor subplots that added nothing. (In this respect, the first movie was far better.) In short, it was sorta cute but sorta dull.
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