Marathon of Shops: You've Got Mail (1998)

Remakes can be a tedious thing to look at, regarding movies and television.  They are often made to get money from name or brand recognition.  People will hear the name and thing something along the lines of “I remember that.  Let’s go see this one.”  Sometimes that isn’t the case.  In the case of You’ve Got Mail, the creation was used to modernize a good story for an audience who likely did not know of the original.

You’ve Got Mail was a 1998 film by Nora Ephron.  It starred Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks as two rival book store owners who were unknowingly having an online relationship.  Also in the movie were Parker Posey, Greg Kinnear, Steve Zahn, and Dabney Coleman.  It was a remake of The Shop Around the Corner, the previous film in the Marathon of Shops.

She's checking her email, not her porn.  I swear.

This was an enjoyable film.  Why did You’ve Got Mail work so well?  It was mostly rooted within the lead actors.  Tom Hanks is almost always likeable in any movie that he is in, or in real life, for that matter.  It is difficult not to like the guy.  The same went for You’ve Got Mail.  As much as his character was spoiling the lives of a few people, it was tough not to like him because of his charisma and attitude.  He was Tom Hanks being Tom Hanks.  Meg Ryan was just as likeable as Hanks for the most part, being the perfect counterpart to his character.  This made it very easy to root for them as a couple.  This is what most romantic comedies should strive for.  They should have likeable characters that the audience will want to be together.

A great element that was added into this story was the fact that the two main characters were even more at odds than in the original.  This time around, there were jobs in serious jeopardy.  Between the jobs and the tension that the two characters had between them, the stakes were heightened in You’ve Got Mail.  It brought more emotion into the film and a better relation between the characters and the audience.  (That’s enough betweens.)

Okay.  He might be checking his porn.

There was a nostalgic emotion brought up through You’ve Got Mail whenever the main characters when on the internet to send emails.  There was the dial-up sound that anyone my age and older would know.  There was the titular sound of “You’ve got mail!”  There were beeps and stuff.  Each of these noises, though annoying as they were at the time, brought up some nostalgia when they showed up within the movie.  This was a nice feeling.

If one thing could be nitpicked about You’ve Got Mail, it would be the internal voices that shine through with the emails.  To be completely blunt, the language of the emails seemed a whole lot more obnoxious than the way that the two characters talked normally.  The language used felt like language that would not normally be used when two people are conversing.  The intent may have been that they were trying to make themselves sound more sophisticated or something like that, but it felt more false.  This was a minor hindrance since the language used did not affect the overall story, but it was an annoyance all the same.

Look at the name of the book store.  Get it?

You’ve Got Mail is a good example of what a romantic comedy should be.  There was tension, there were laughs, the main characters were likeable, and the movie is something that a viewer can invest themselves in.  This is something that seems to have been lost, for the most part, in romantic comedies.  It would be easy to go back and rewatch You’ve Got Mail in the future.

That brings the Marathon of Shops to a close.  Coming up will be the awards.  Then the marathons go on hiatus for a little bit.  It’s been fun.  I hope you continue to read the blog.  And that’s all I have to say about that.

Go get your mail, boy.  Go get it.