You've Got Mail (1998) **1/2 out of *****
Cast: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Parker Posey, Jean Stapleton, Dave Chappelle, Steve Zahn, Dabney Coleman, Greg Kinnear Written by: Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron Directed by: Nora Ephron Running Time: 120 minutes
By this time, everyone knows that in these kinds of movies (romantic comedies) the two main characters will be together by the film's end. The question though is: Will the journey to that point in the film be interesting enough? In the case of You've Got Mail, the answer to that is sadly "not really".
You've Got Mail reteams Sleepless in Seattle co-stars Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan with director Nora Ephron for a remake of the 1940 James Stewart classic The Shop Around the Corner. In this modern retelling, Ryan is a small book store owner in New York City who faces competition from a multi-millionaire's (Tom Hanks) new book megastore which opens up down the street from her. The two square off in real life, but little do they know that they are actually in love with each other thanks to their anonymous communications via email.
As far as the film goes, everything seems rather distant and uninvolved. The original seemed to have much more emotion and depth to it, and you would think a remake would only take things further. Instead, everything seems slightly contrived and lacking real emotion.
I enjoyed Tom Hanks performance, as it seems I always do, but I'm getting tired of seeing Meg Ryan play the exact same person in every single movie she's in, that character being "the sweet girl involved with the wrong guy". You'll wish there was more time to devote to the supporting cast, particularly Greg Kinnear who vanishes mid-way through the film without any explanation whatsoever. He's the "wrong guy" dating Meg Ryan's character... who by the way is never really made to look like the "wrong guy". He's a little odd, but definately not a bad guy in any way, shape, or form. And independent film queen Parker Posey... what on earth is she doing in an actual studio film that people will see?
A quick note about the score for the film. It sounds exactly like the music in our local Winn-Dixie grocery store commercials that everytime the main theme would play, I'd recite the words for the store's jingle in my head. It was a minor annoyance to me, but I'm positive no one else in the country picked up on it.
You've Got Mail is available on DVD from Warner Home Video. It contains the film in it's original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Special features on the DVD include the HBO First Look:A Conversation with Nora Ephron documentary, a video tour of various locations in New York City's upper west side, a feature length audio commentary with writer-director Nora Ephron and producer Lauren Shuler Donner, an alternate music only audio track, the usual cast and crew info and production notes, and TWELVE theatrical trailers (two for this film, one for the 1940 original The Shop Around The Corner, one for it's remake In the Good Old Summertime, and eight for other films you might enjoy, like Joe vs. the Volcano, Tin Cup and Message in a Bottle).
The DVD also contains a plethora of DVD-ROM features, but since I do not have DVD-ROM access (and am pretty much against the concept anyway) I'm not really going to go into any of them here.
The audio commentary for the film is pretty bland in my opinion, since Nora Ephron just doesn't exactly ooze enthusiasm. Producer Donner does seem fairly excited to talk about the film, but 1) she sounds like she's not wearing a microphone and is hovering behind Ephron in the recording studio, and 2) Ephron cuts her off and talks over her on numerous occasions. Add all that to the fact that they're talking about a movie that just didn't do a whole lot for me and you've got one mediocre commentary. The HBO documentary is equally blah, as it's mainly just a sit down interview with Nora Ephron. Although, the documentary does have one highlight: there's a quick scene in it that's not in the film itself with Meg Ryan and Greg Kinnear sitting in a movie theater. Had it been kept in the final cut I would call it my favorite moment in the film. [PG]
The Jacksonville Film Journal -- Film Reviews by Chuck Dowling URL:http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/ Email:chuckd21@leading.net
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