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2/4/1999 Rent the OriginalTab and I saw You've Got Mail last night. I was disappointed in it. I loved the location shots of the Upper West Side, and Tom Hanks is always fun to watch, but overall I much prefer the movie on which it was based, The Shop Around the Corner. Meg Ryan's mannerisms--the crinkled nose, the furrowed brow, the quirky smile--are starting to grate on me. She seems to be playing the same character in all her romantic comedies. And what was with that tousled mop of hair? Some poor hairdresser spent hours every day moussing and teasing to make Meg Ryan look like she had just fallen out of bed. Another thing bothered me about the movie. The plot sets up a David vs. Goliath situation: Meg Ryan plays Kathleen Kelly, who is fighting for the survival of her small children's bookstore against the evil chain bookstore that has moved into the neighborhood. Yet where does Kathleen buy her latte? Not at some independent neighborhood coffee shop but at Starbucks! Apparently, in the mind of Nora Ephron, the screenwriter, only those huge chain book stores are bad. What I dislike most about You've Got Mail, though, is that the both Meg Ryan's character and Tom Hanks's character were involved with other people when they started flirting online. OK, they weren't married to their significant others; still, living with someone implies a certain level of commitment. And how realistic is it that when our hero and heroine are finally ready to come together, those two other people are neatly and conveniently dispatched? No tears when they learn of their beloveds' betrayal of them, no ugly scenes, no bitter recriminations. Yeah, right. To be fair, there are some funny lines that had me laughing out loud and good performances by Hanks and some of the supporting players, especially Greg Kinnear. There's also a wonderful scene in which the online sweethearts have planned to meet at a restaurant. Kathleen is seated at the table waiting for her mystery man, complete with a book and a flower so he'll recognize her. Joe Fox (Hanks) arrives with a friend, and momentarily paralyzed with fear, asks his friend to look in the window to spot his date. His friend recognizes Joe's antagonist, Kathleen, as the mystery woman and breaks the news to Joe. Then Joe goes in and needles Kathleen without ever letting her know that he was the one for whom she was waiting. Interestingly, this set piece was lifted virtually unchanged right out of The Shop Around the Corner. All criticisms aside, I had a relaxing time out with my husband and without the kiddies, so the movie was ultimately a success. We hardly ever go out by ourselves, and I enjoy it inordinately when we do.
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