In the 1980s and 1990s, writer and director Nora Ephron was the queen of the rom-com: When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail were huge movies both commercially and culturally. You’ve Got Mail reunites the Sleepless duo of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, casting them as rival bookstore owners who can’t stand each other in real life, but fall for one another anonymously online. If you were around at the time, the computer stuff will make you feel absolutely ancient (and if you weren’t, might be mildly baffling), but the movie itself has aged well and remains one of the great rom-coms from the 1990s – and makes for a great weekend watch among Netflix‘s library.
You’ve Got Mail has a star-studded cast and some killer lines
Rewatching the movie after 25 years, The Cut had some thoughts: “In 1998, it was still a little bit radical to meet your partner on the internet, especially in a chat room, but today, when rewatching You’ve Got Mail, what we really noticed feels nearly unrecognizable is the Upper West Side, the price of apartments (duh) throughout the city, and Barnes & Noble’s reputation.” And Cosmopolitan was surprised by how many familiar faces are in it: “Dave Chappelle as Hanks’ funny friend? Steve Zahn as Ryan’s co-worker? Chris Messina as a bookstore employee?”
Entertainment Weekly did the recap thing five years previously, noting that the film was inevitable after Sleepless in Seattle “grossed $126 million domestically, helped establish Nora Ephron as the most formidable female filmmaker in Hollywood, and sealed Hanks and Ryan’s reputation as the can’t-miss combo of the ’90s.” The duo were “the Tracy and Hepburn of their time. The cutest couple on the big screen today”, and Mail was “Ephron’s slickest, most polished film to date”.
As Empire put it: “You’ve Got Mail attempts to imbue cold ’90s technology with a warm fuzziness reserved for kids and kittens. And, in the face of well worn formula, it works. Kind of.”
