YOU'VE GOT MAIL (1998)
Starring Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Parker Posey, Jean Stapleton, Dave Chapelle, Steve Zahn, Dabney Coleman, Michael Badalucco and Greg Kinnear.
Screenplay by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron.
Directed by Nora Ephron.
Distributed by Warner Brothers Pictures. Rated PG. 119 minutes.
The latest chapter in the Meg Ryan-Tom Hanks flirtation, You've Got Mail is an enjoyable lark. About as weighty as air and likable as a puppy, this is a story of E-mail heartthrobs who just happen to be enemies in the business world.
The lightweight story gets a real boost from the basic likability and just darned cuteness of the stars. You see Hanks and Ryan and they are so perfect for each other that you can't understand how they don't realize that fact. The constants of writer/director Nora Ephron's style are all reassuringly here – the missed connections, the old standard tunes meant to reflect the action, the cute kids and dog, the people living lives that are unfulfilled until they meet the right person.
By now it has become something of a formula with Ephron (When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless In Seattle), but it is a comfortable formula. The only problem with this film is that for a romantic comedy, You've Got Mail is charming and sweet, but it isn't all that funny. At least the other two films had that going for them.
Sabrina Stevens
Copyright © 1998 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: December 18, 1998.
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