Susan Granger's review of "YOU'VE GOT MAIL" (Warner Bros.)
This hip, contemporary remake of the Ernst Lubitsch comedy "The Shop Around the Corner," which was based on Miklos Laszlo's "Parfumerie," stars Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan as two booksellers who fall in love in the age of e-mail. She runs a small children's bookstore on New York City's Upper West Side, while he's the scion of a huge superchain which is putting every independent bookstore out of business. They both buy groceries at Zabars and pick up coffee at Starbucks, passing each other on the street, but they've never met. He lives with a hyperactive book editor (Parker Posey) and she lives with an erudite newspaper columnist (Greg Kinnear). Yet, as they face off against one another in their professional life, they unwittingly romance each other, using pseudonyms as they pour out their hearts on the web. Nora Ephron has cleverly updated the story for the electronic age, giving the old-fashioned a fresh, new panache. "The Internet looks infinite," she explains. "But, like a great big city, it's really a series of villages, full of people who care about similar things connecting with one another." While Tom Hanks is splendid, his best bet in the Oscar derby is for "Saving Private Ryan," but isn't it about time Meg Ryan got an Oscar nomination? With a captivating combination of fragility and ferocity, she makes romantic comedy look so easy. In a supporting role, Jean Stapleton strikes a memory chord as she sings and plays the piano. Remember her as Edith Bunker in TV's "All in the Family," warbling the theme in the opening credits? On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "You've Got Mail" delivers a first-class, charming 10. What a sparkling, sweet treat! It's the most romantic movie of the holiday season.
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