Review of You've Got Mail (1998) by Robert H — 18 Dec 2013

One of the ultimate romcoms ever made and yet, especially in todays climate, it seemed to leave a little something in my mouth... and it didn't taste all that good.

While I think the story is well told, the chemistry is truly there between Hanks and Ryan and there is some beauty dialogue between the two, You've Got Mail has a message outside of the romance that I didn't particularly like.

You could go into detail about the big business versus the little guy or the battle of the sexes or the message regarding how a woman shouldn't be her own boss and should live her life under the comforting and protective embrace of a man... not that You've Got Mail is anything more than two people who start off hating each other only to fall in love at the end... but you know. You could look behind the surface and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't take much digging to find all the metaphors and subliminal aspects of You've Got Mail that manage to take it from being a wonderful meeting of two lost souls and turns it into some gross piece of propaganda put forth by the big book companies (just a possible example of a possible perpetrator).

But if you can look past all the evil that seems to eminate from this film and concentrate on the feelings of the two main characters You've Got Mail is a wonderful tale of two successful people trying to find love in a city of couples, crazies and creeps by using the internet. Of course, seeing the early usage of the internet and AOL are worth the watch just to remember or compare to how things are today.