cinemattraction

You’ve Got Mail is like that guy at work everybody warns you about. It hits on everyone wearing a skirt. It’s cheesy and a little desperate, but soon you are being charmed in spite of yourself. It’s funny, has a way with words, and is enjoyable company. But before you know it, you’re crying to your friends about something that, by all accounts, you should have never gotten mixed up in. However, considering the recent parade of lackluster, unprofitable romantic comedies including The Wedding Date, Must Love Dogs, Perfect Man and the ridiculous sequel to Bridget Jones’s Diary, a breezy confection like You’ve Got Mail starts to look like Annie Hall. At the very least, it deserves to be reconsidered for inexplicably succeeding – through sheer will-power and Hollywood magic – where those other films have failed.

A remake of The Shop Around the Corner (1940) starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan, You’ve Got Mail is basically a two-hour long plug for America Online, Barnes & Noble, Starbucks, and every other pre-fabricated corporation that has sucked the life out of vibrant local communities in the name of speed and bargain-basement costs. Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) and Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) are anonymous e-mail pals. Their paths cross when Fox, heir to Fox Books, opens a store across the street from Kelly’s neighborhood children’s bookstore, The Shop Around the Corner. Although both are involved in long-term relationships, the love/hate sparks fly when they finally meet each other, unaware of their online connection. When Joe realizes that Kathleen is his e-mail amour, he must figure out a way to endear himself to her offline despite their business rivalry.

There is very little in the way of plot to recommend this movie since it is contrived in the way that most rom-coms are. And never has a film so shamelessly pandered to every consumer demographic in order to sell tickets. For example:

• Young to middle-aged women? Check. Obviously. This crowd is a sucker for any wish-fulfillment fantasies and romantic comedy. Any soccer mom who swooned during Sleepless in Seattle will be primed for another Hanks-Ryan tearjerker.

• Hipster indie crowd? Check. The unlikely addition of Parker Posey as Fox’s fiancé and Steve Zahn as The Shop’s zany, sole male employee, guarantees at least a few curious emo-listeners.

• The urban audience? Check. Popular comedian Dave Chappelle (pre-Chappelle Show and post-Half Baked) is Hanks’ co-worker and best friend. The only problem: the film never reveals the bizarro parallel universe that the world must have fallen into to cause Chappelle and Hanks to ever travel in the same social circles.

Perhaps most appalling is the fact that after Fox Books puts local landmark The Shop Around the Corner out of business, Kathleen thanks Joe for liberating her from the daily rigors of being a businesswoman. Now she can finally pursue her passion for writing children’s books instead of selling them. Presumably the two are mutually exclusive. When she further rewards him by agreeing to a friendship, my feminist side bristles.

You’ve Got Mail continually casts corporations in the position of the misunderstood underdog. After all, they are just trying to provide valuable services at reasonable prices in return for a modicum of economic power, cultural domination and unchecked political influence. The one progressive, anti-corporate character in the film is presented as a pretentious Luddite who is ultimately co-opted by the allure of consumerism, capitalism and mass media. Apparently, resistance is futile.

But here’s the thing. By some strange moviemaking alchemy – somewhat attributable to the fact that Hanks is the most likeable movie star since, well, Jimmy Stewart from the original – it works. Ryan is reliably adorable, though at a lesser intensity; and the banter between her and Hanks feels natural, bordering on improvised. After co-starring in three films together, two of which were penned by genre luminaries Delia and Nora Ephron, the pair seem to genuinely enjoy each other’s company. These are romantic comedy veterans, relaxed and having fun with their personas in the tradition of Hepburn and Tracy. Despite my double X chromosomes, my tastes stray far from syrupy romance, but – God help me – every time the third act rolls around I’m sobbing and wishing that Kathleen will forgive Joe and embark on their preppy Manhattan life together at last. Here, good old-fashioned chemistry and star power succeed in breathing life into a stale plot device and overly familiar genre conventions, which makes You’ve Got Mail only a semi-guilty pleasure.

© 2006 Robyn Citizen. All rights reserved.

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