You've Got Mail (1998)
Directed by Nora Ephron
Book superstore magnate Joe Fox and independent book shop owner Kathleen Kelly fall in love in the anonymity of the Internet—both blissfully unaware that he's trying to put her out of business.
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16 films that influenced You've Got Mail
What critics say influenced You've Got Mail
The best thing about You've Got Mail, Nora Ephron's remake of Ernst Lubitsch's delightful The Shop Around the Corner , is that its modernity is mostly for show.
Director Nora Ephron wrote the screenplay with Delia Ephron, based on the 1940 movie The Shop Around the Corner.
(As does its inspiration, The Shop Around the Corner.
Written by Nora and Delia Ephron based on The Shop Around the Corner, screenplay by Samson Raphaelson, and on Parfumerie, a play by Miklós László.
However, in Nora Ephron's latest romantic comedy, You've Got Mail (an update of Ernst Lubitsch's 1940 movie, The Shop Around the Corner), all that's required of these two popular performers is that they effervesce.
Now it's my job to make readers aware of Ernst Lubitsch's The Shop Around the Corner (1940), which writer/director Nora Ephron has remade as You've Got Mail.
Despite being a box office hit, it’s not as warmly remembered today as Sleepless in Seattle, which always surprised me – probably because I never cared for Sleepless (or its inspiration, the sappy, unbearable An Affair to Remember), while Mail still charms effortlessly.
In Sleepless, the movie that embodied a woman's fantasies was An Affair to Remember; for men, it was The Dirty Dozen.
That earlier film was partly inspired by "An Affair to Remember," and this one is inspired by "The Shop Around the Corner," but both are really inspired by the appeal of Ryan and Hanks, who have more winning smiles than most people have expressions.
Where City of Angels tried to overlay Los Angeles with an ethereal, spiritual quality that that city simply doesn't have (the only movie I've ever seen that came close to bestowing a soul upon L.A. is Steve Martin's wonderful L.A. Story), Mail offers us a fantasy version of New York, the one we'd all like to live in, that only serves to enhance the film's genuine New York magic.
It's set against some of the most beautiful images of New York since Woody Allen's "Manhattan", and the nostalgic soundtrack (which includes a lot of good songs from Harry Nilsson) gives the film an even more romantic feel.
Yes, better than The Philadelphia Story, better than The Apartment, better than the one-two punch of Annie Hall and Manhattan.
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We sneered at A Perfect Murder, a remake of Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder.
(The story also inspired Judy Garland's film In the Good Old Summertime and the Broadway musical She Loves Me.) Lubitsch, of course, cast Jimmy Stewart opposite Margaret Sullavan.
For Kathleen, Pride and Prejudice is the Bible.
It's "Sleepless in Seattle" all over again.
You've Got Mail is very much a retread of Sleepless in Seattle -- the last film to pair Hanks and Ryan -- but what ensured I enjoyed it more than I might have was the fact that it can also be seen as a love letter to my hometown, New York City.
Director Nora Ephron makes the most of the New York setting and draws out relaxed comic performances from the two leads, who worked so well together in Sleepless in Seattle.
Despite being a box office hit, it’s not as warmly remembered today as Sleepless in Seattle, which always surprised me – probably because I never cared for Sleepless (or its inspiration, the sappy, unbearable An Affair to Remember), while Mail still charms effortlessly.
You've Got Mail is the third pairing of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan following Joe vs. the Volcano and Sleepless in Seattle.
Hanks and Ryan were hired for two reasons: both are instantly likable and, as proven in two previous outings ( Joe Versus the Volcano and Sleepless in Seattle ), they work well together.
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Meg Ryan starred in a remake of Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire earlier this year called City of Angels.
Yes, better than The Philadelphia Story, better than The Apartment, better than the one-two punch of Annie Hall and Manhattan.