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It's Christmas -- well actually just after, and we're visiting the in-laws. In what has become something of a new tradition, we left Squirt with Grandma and Grandpa, and we went to see a movie. Last year at this time it was Tomorrow Never Dies, earlier it was a trip to the drive-in to see Lethal Weapon 4 and Zorro (again). This time we went to see You've Got Mail
After a rather nifty little CGI opening segment, we see Kathleen (Meg Ryan) seeing off her boyfriend Frank (Greg Kinnear) -- watching him go down the stairs, watching him walk down the street, making sure he's gone so she can rush to her computer to check her email from NY152. As she's reading his latest epic, we see Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) waiting for his girlfriend (Parker Posey) to leave for work, so he can go to his computer to check the mail for a return message from Shopgirl. Kathleen owns a small children's bookstore on New York's west side. Joe is heir to Fox & Sons -- a huge Barnes & Noble like bookchain that is building a new superstore around the corner from -- you guessed it, Kathleen's Just Around the Corner bookstore.
Joe and Kathleen meet, when Joe takes his 8 yr old aunt (she's his grandfather's daughter) and 4 yr old brother (his father's son) out to a children's fair, and they wander in for story hour at Kathleen's shop. Joe is smitten, but realizes that he's the enemy, and avoids letting her know who he is. It works this time, but at a party amongst literary types, someone let's the cat out of the bag. Kathleen doesn't know what to say, so Shopgirl asks NY152 for advice. He says 'Take it to the matresses', a reference to the Godfather (which he had done before) meaning declare war. She does, but her sales continue to fall. Meanwhile, as Joe and Kathleen are battling, NY152 and Shopgirl, throwing caution to the wind, decide to meet. They arrange a place and a signal, but before Joe goes in, he sends his friend (Dave Chappelle) up to take a look -- suprise, suprise it's Kathleen. Joe decides to retreat, then changes his mind. He goes in, but doesn't let on that he's the one she's waiting for. Meanwhile, she's zinging him left and right, until he finally leaves. The next morning there's some humorous dialog concerning Kathleen getting stood up, but even the humor can't disguise the fact that the store can't go on anymore. Joe decides to let NY152 and Shopgirl keep on though -- and after his father makes a comment about relationships (after his `girlfriend runs off with the nanny (a slick bit of irony that)), Joe decides it's time to smooth they way for an actual relationship with the woman he truly loves. The two enemies gradually bury the hatchet, and the two cyber mates decide to meet again. Joe confesses his true feelings to Kathleen, but she has to get ready to meet NY152. And they do -- when she finds out that Joe was the guy she's in love with she says she was hoping it was him -- and they all live happily ever after -- except for the fact that he's an IBM user, and she's on a Mac -- and you know that never works out in the end.
So, can Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks succesfully pull off a romantic comedy? Duh! Didn't you see Sleepless in Seattle? My wife kept saying this was just like that film -- but she's wrong. This film is far closer to the Rock Hudson/Doris Day film Pillow Talk, than Sleepless.... although in a different way. In pillow talk, Doris hates the unseen face on the partyline, and falls for the actual Rock she meets later -- Here Meg hates the actual Tom and adores the unseen NY152 she's emailing. In both movies, there are big battles, careful reapproachment, and eventually happily ever after's. Different people, different technologies, similar movies. Was it good? It was sweet, but not without being sappy, though the end was obvious. Go see it anyway.