You've Got Mail Review
by David Nusair (dnusair AT chat DOT carleton DOT ca)January 15th, 1999
You've Got Mail (Reviewed on Jan. 14/99)
Starring Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Parker Posey, Greg Kinnear, Steve Zahn
"You've Got Mail" is the very definition of a "cute" movie. It's got cute stars, a cute story-line, and even cute pets. Despite this over-whelming cuteness (or maybe because of it), I loved "You've Got Mail".
I know, I know. I'm supposed to be a film critic. I'm not supposed to love transparent and formula pictures like this. But darn it, somewhere along the way, "You've Got Mail" reeled me in, hook, line, and sinker.
The movie stars Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan as two somewhat unhappy New Yorkers who meet in an AOL online chat room and quickly become close friends, without ever knowing each others identity. As the movie progresses, though, they begin to discover that they have a lot in common with each other. Meanwhile, in "real-life", they are bitter competitors. She owns a quaint little children's bookstore, he owns one of those gigantic super-bookstores that offer impersonal service and discount prices. While his store threatens to run her store out of business, their online relationship grows stronger.
"You've Got Mail" is as artificial as movies come. Everything is nice and happy and by the end, all the characters have gotten exactly what they wanted out of life. There are no real conflicts, no major disappointments, no unresolved issues. Nevertheless, I quite enjoyed it. In fact, I can't remember the last time I had such a good time at the movies.
I think sometimes you have to be able to watch a movie and just get drawn into it. The fact that stars Hank and Ryan are at the top of their game does not hurt either. In particular, Hanks is at his best here, turning his "charm-meter" up to 11. Everytime he was on screen, he had my full attention. And despite the fact that he was driving little bookstores out of business, I was rooting for him. It was good to see Hanks back doing what he does best: Playing the affable everyman.
"You've Got Mail" certainly won't be winning any awards, but as an exercise in pure entertainment, it's as good as it gets.
***1/2 out of ****
David Nusair dnusair@chat.carleton.ca ,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,. :"Yesterday, the last professional hockey player to play without a helmet : ; announced he's retiring. His actual words were, `I no play hockey never ; : more.'" -Conan O'Brien :
;.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,; Dept. of Good Vibes, Come visit my Reel Film Reviews site Carleton University at "http://chat.carleton.ca/~dnusair"
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
