Year:
1998
Studio:
Warner Brothers
Movie:
4/5
DVD:
4/5
Teaser
What if your email pen pal -- your friend, confidant, that person
you've never met and can tell your deepest secrets -- were someone you
already knew in real life? Wouldn't that be great if that turned out to
be true? But what if it turns out that you hate that person in real
life? How are you ever going to get past those two conflicting feelings
for this person?
Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) and Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) are two such people.
Great friends in email before they even meet in real life. Too bad that
in real life they are going to be somewhat bitter enemies. Kathleen is
the owner of a small children's book store while Joe Fox is a scion of
the Fox Books empire, who are opening up a mega-book store right next
door. To Joe it's just business and although he might have some
reservations he will still destroy the competition. To Kathleen it's
her life and she can't help but be emotional.
As the two's relationship goes from bad to worse in real life, in email
they start bonding ever closer. But it has to come to an end
eventually. Joe finds out who his email pen pal is, and now he has to
rethink his relationship with Kathleen. He realizes he wants her but
how is he going to win her heart when she hates him in real life?
Movie
This is what "Sleepless in Seattle" should have been. The problem with
"Sleepless" is that it's short and everything is hurried. Take a
90-minute movie, expand it to 2 hours, and now you can take your time
and build up the plot. The result is "You've Got Mail". Two people who
have two very different relationships with each other. The whole movie
is about the two opposite sides of the relationship and how Joe
unravels them until Kathleen goes from hating him in real life to
loving him in both real life and email.
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Actors
Acting is one of those jobs, actually like many occupations, that the
difference between someone who's merely good and someone who's great at
it is very subtle. I can tell good from bad, but not good from great.
So it's helpful to have commentary where you have someone pointing out
to you the subtleties of acting.
Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are great. Hanks is sincere and smarmy and
frustrated and vulnerable. Ryan has the girl-next-door romantic female
part honed to a fine edge. Watching them both play off of each other,
even when they're not both physically in the same room, is wonderful.
DVD
The DVD has an excellent commentary by writer/director Nora Ephron and
producer Lauren Shuler Donner, shedding many insights into the story
and acting. There is a 15-minute made-for-HBO featurette centering on
an interview with Nora Ephron. There is also a New York Locations
sections with commentary and video for each of the real locations used
in the movie. Four theatrical trailers -- two for this movie and one
for each of the older versions of the story, "The Shop Around the
Corner" (with Jimmy Stewart) and "In the Good Old Summertime" (a
musical with Judy Garland) -- round out the DVD.
Recommendations
This is a great romantic comedy. Watching it with the commentary is
even better. Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks are both great. Highly recommended.
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