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You've Got Mail, 1998
Kathleen (Meg Ryan) owns and operates an independent children's bookstore in New York City. Joe (Tom Hanks) is in the middle of opening a corporate, Borders-like book superstore just around the corner. Obvious animosity develops between the two, but they are unaware that they are corresponding online with each other via AOL forums. As their online relationship grows, their real-world dynamics become more and more contentious.
This is a remake of The Shop Around the Corner, updated to the internet age. While the cast is stacked with very charming talent, some the dynamics of the story end up making the romance kind of icky.
Ryan and Hanks are both proven romantic-comedy talents, including their work in Sleepless in Seattle. They both bring plenty of charm to their roles, especially Hanks, who must still come off as likable even though he is driving Ryan's character out of business. They are supported by a whole slew of secondary characters, like Greg Kinnear's goober of an intellectual poseur, who is dating Kathleen, or Parker Posey as Joe's girlfriend. Even much smaller roles are filled by talents like Dave Chapelle, Steve Zahn, and Jean Stapleton.
But the plot. The plot. Oof.
There's a plot point in both the original film and this adaptation (MILD SPOILERS) that about a third of the way or halfway through the film, Joe learns that Kathleen is his secret correspondent. In both versions, the male lead leverages this one-sided knowledge to feel out the relationship and generally mess with his love interest. It's not hard to see how this is problematic and kind of gross.
But in the original film, the characters were co-workers in the same store, with the female lead being remarkable for her salesmanship. So there was a power imbalance, but other elements somewhat balanced it out.
In this film, though, Joe's store is literally destroying Kathleen's work, something that not only brings her great joy, but is also the thing that she most connects with to her dead mother. At two hours long, this adds up to about an hour of Joe manipulating, humiliating, and otherwise playing mind games with Kathleen as her business goes under. There's a grace period right after he finds out who she is where you think, yeah, he needs to buy some time to figure out how to navigate this. But an hour of run time?! And to then have Joe basically start pitting himself against . . . himself and forcing Kathleen to choose just feels cruel. But because the movie needs us to be okay with this, Kathleen is perpetually apologizing to Joe when she's angry, and then so grateful for his attentions.
The cast is great, and deliver their lines with aplomb. But all the charm in the world can't save an overall premise that is pretty yucky if you think about it for more than two minutes.
You've Got Mail, 1998
Kathleen (Meg Ryan) owns and operates an independent children's bookstore in New York City. Joe (Tom Hanks) is in the middle of opening a corporate, Borders-like book superstore just around the corner. Obvious animosity develops between the two, but they are unaware that they are corresponding online with each other via AOL forums. As their online relationship grows, their real-world dynamics become more and more contentious.
This is a remake of The Shop Around the Corner, updated to the internet age. While the cast is stacked with very charming talent, some the dynamics of the story end up making the romance kind of icky.
Ryan and Hanks are both proven romantic-comedy talents, including their work in Sleepless in Seattle. They both bring plenty of charm to their roles, especially Hanks, who must still come off as likable even though he is driving Ryan's character out of business. They are supported by a whole slew of secondary characters, like Greg Kinnear's goober of an intellectual poseur, who is dating Kathleen, or Parker Posey as Joe's girlfriend. Even much smaller roles are filled by talents like Dave Chapelle, Steve Zahn, and Jean Stapleton.
But the plot. The plot. Oof.
There's a plot point in both the original film and this adaptation (MILD SPOILERS) that about a third of the way or halfway through the film, Joe learns that Kathleen is his secret correspondent. In both versions, the male lead leverages this one-sided knowledge to feel out the relationship and generally mess with his love interest. It's not hard to see how this is problematic and kind of gross.
But in the original film, the characters were co-workers in the same store, with the female lead being remarkable for her salesmanship. So there was a power imbalance, but other elements somewhat balanced it out.
In this film, though, Joe's store is literally destroying Kathleen's work, something that not only brings her great joy, but is also the thing that she most connects with to her dead mother. At two hours long, this adds up to about an hour of Joe manipulating, humiliating, and otherwise playing mind games with Kathleen as her business goes under. There's a grace period right after he finds out who she is where you think, yeah, he needs to buy some time to figure out how to navigate this. But an hour of run time?! And to then have Joe basically start pitting himself against . . . himself and forcing Kathleen to choose just feels cruel. But because the movie needs us to be okay with this, Kathleen is perpetually apologizing to Joe when she's angry, and then so grateful for his attentions.
The cast is great, and deliver their lines with aplomb. But all the charm in the world can't save an overall premise that is pretty yucky if you think about it for more than two minutes.