Jared's Pick - Movie Reviews: You've Got Mail

You've Got Mail

If there's anyone who doesn't need the Internet to meet guys, it's Meg Ryan. She's just impossibly cute, and so is this movie. Cute like cuddly bunnies, like pastel pink stuffed animals and designer toddler sneakers, like raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens. Getting queasy yet?

I'm exaggerating a bit - You've Got Mail isn't nauseatingly cute, although it starts off that way. Instead, it's a movie for everyone who saw Sleepless In Seattle and wanted to see Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan actually interact instead of ending the movie when they first meet. Same cast, same director, same genre - You've Got Mail really is Sleepless In Seattle Part Deux, but like most sequels isn't as good as the original.

Meg Ryan, as Kathleen, runs a sweet little children's bookstore, the kind of place you used to go when you were ten to find the new Ramona or Hardy Boys book and listen to Story Hour. Tom Hanks is Joe, the adorable corporate type who is opening a 1,000,000 square foot book superstore that will drive her family owned shop out of business. Naturally, she hates him for what he is doing to the store she loves. But the irony is that she has a deep crush on his online alter ego, NY152.

As their real lives cross and clash, their online relationship deepens. As they email back and forth, neither one knows the personal details about the other's life until they inevitably stumble across the truth. Joe finds out first, and uses the information to manipulate Kathleen into falling for him. Oddly, she doesn't seem to mind. You'd expect her to be outraged at having been a pawn in his game, but what's a little personal integrity when you're in love? So he put her out of a job and broke her heart - at least he gives good email. I wonder if the guy who runs Blockbuster is dating the owner of the sadly defunct Express Video.

Regardless, the premise (They love each other! They hate each other!) is solid enough to carry the film, and really, all we're here to do is watch Ryan and Hanks get together, which we want to do so badly we are willing to put up with a few minor plot devices and movie cliches. There is a distinct lack of comedy in this romantic comedy, but the romance is so sweet and light and fluffy and harmless that the movie goes down easy.

The film feels like a commercial for America Online at times - you'd think that a corporate type like Joe would have the smarts to ditch the lowest-common denominator AOL and get a decent browser like Opera or Netscape, or at least turn off that self-satisfied "you've got mail" audio file. But it's a good hook to pull audiences in - like AOL itself, You've Got Mail is designed to be cutsey, friendly, and not to make you think too hard. In a word, the movie is fine. Fine for families, fine for a date movie, and most of all, fine for rental. But knowing that big bad corporate Joe is going to crush Kathleen's bookstore, you may want to rent it from Olde Town or Atlantic Video, just to keep your karma balanced.

- Jared O'Connor

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