Review of You've Got Mail (1998) by Dave H — 06 Oct 2013

A couple of Manhattanites emotionally cheat on their respective partners, but that's ok, cause they are played by Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, and because they do it against an exquisite Upper-West-Side upper-class fantasy.

The dialogue is often sharp, often funny, and often corny - and almost always well-delivered. Ryan is probably at her most twinkly-eyed irresistible. The conglomerate vs ma-and-pa David and Goliath bookstore thing gratifyingly doesn't actually take sides, but delivers it straight, which makes it more interesting, and poignant, for ex-booksellers like moi.

The online relationship thing also rings a bell, but it's almost quaint here, rather than par-for-the-course. I guess it was cutting edge back-in-the-day. Be warned, this is one of those films where the leads fall-in-love without even holding hands, and the only physical contact comes in the final seconds.

Of course, they film cleverly gets around the all-too-common issue of internet-only lovers finally meeting to discover they have ZERO physical chemistry, by establishing an off-line frisson between the leads as well.

Nicely done. Even average Ephron still outclasses almost everything else.