Review: You’ve Got Mail (1998)

Director: Nora Ephron | 119 minutes | comedy, romance | Actors: Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks, Parker Posey, Jean Stapelton, Greg Kinnear, Steve Zahn, Heather Burns, Dave Chappelle, Dabney Coleman, John Randolph, Deborah Rush, Hallee Hirsh, Jeffrey Scaperrotta, Cara Seymour, Katie Finneran

After the big box office hit of “Sleepless in Seattle” (1993), the trio Ephron, Ryan and Hanks now reunite for the second time in the romantic comedy “You’ve Got Mail”. For Tom and Meg, this is even the third romantic comedy they make together. Their first movie together was “Joe vs. The Vulcano ‘.

“You’ve Got Mail” is a pleasant video that goes on smoothly. You can be brief about the content. Two people send each other mail via the net. Without knowing about each other, however, they hate each other in real life, but in the end, of course, they turn out to be made for each other. That all ends well. And that’s how it should be in romantic comedies.

From a narrative point of view, the film is built quite logically. Cause and effect follow each other in direct succession, so there are few time or action gaps, something we see very little in films lately. Haste and speed are two of the biggest flaws in the current film industry. Too little time is taken to work out characters, plot lines or complications, which does not always benefit the viewing pleasure.

Still, “You’ve Got Mail” is not very special from a story point of view. The standard ingredients of a romantic comedy have been modernized a bit, and voilà, check out the new version of “Sleepless in Seattle” here. What makes both films unique, however, is the attraction between both actors. The pleasure in the cooperation radiates from them and whether they are angry or happy with each other, there is a certain energy between them that is very contagious.

Jean Stapleton and Parker Posey were chosen for the two supporting roles. The latter played her role excellently, perfectly cast as Tom’s spoiled girlfriend. In some way, all the characters she has portrayed have always been a bit loose. Here too she has mastered a number of typical ways that make her characters very annoying from the very first second.

The film is based on the story of “The Shop Around the Corner” and the later stage adaptation “She Loves Me”. Meg’s shop in the new version is therefore called the shop around the corner, but in this more modern version the letter has lost out on the e-mail and the computer. An important change for a film in which the replacement of the small “shops around the corner” by large retail chains is central.