YOU'VE GOT MAIL

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 4 out of 5

Because of: innuendo, mild language

Rated:

There's nothing quite like a romance to brighten any day. When one comes wrapped in as charming of a package as You've Got Mail, there's plenty to smile about... if you can overlook its few quips. In this latest pairing of the notorious Tom Hanks / Meg Ryan duo, they play opposite ends of the spectrum. Ryan is Kathleen Kelly, a charming, sweet, open-tempered and generally all-around nice young woman with a children's bookstore in downtown New York. Hanks plays her extreme opposite ... the cynical, self-centered, bad-tempered and often cruel Joe Fox, big business owner. He and his corporation are about to build a mega-bookstore just down the street from Kathleen's little shop, thus putting her and all other small businesses out of business.

Kathleen has a good life; she makes a reasonable amount of money, loves the people she works with, a solid friendship with an older mentor, and a bright if sometimes eccentric boyfriend who works for the local newspaper. Not overly concerned with Fox Books, she continues pitching sales and restocking shelves as usual, unaware that her dream job is about to come crashing down around her. Unknown to Frank, her fiance, she is carrying on a friendship with a man she ran into in a chat room. The relationship is "safe," since there are no specifics -- they talk about a variety of subjects and don't even know one another's name.

Concerned because she's becoming increasingly interested in her mysterious correspondent, Kathleen asks her mentor if she shouldn't break it off. But this single friend is the one friendly face and open heart she can turn to when her business goes into decline due to the new, shiny-floored, big-shelved, massive book megaplex that has just opened around the corner. Her friend tells her to fight to the death... and so she launches a campaign to drive Joe Fox and his "cappuccino land" out of existence.

In the meantime, Joe Fox is struggling with his conscience... and the secret he's hiding from his overpowering, money-grabbing girlfriend. While it's all-out war with Kathleen Kelly, his personal life is in turmoil... he's falling in love with someone over the internet. He doesn't know her name or what she looks like, but she's the most beautiful woman in spirit that he's ever met. You guessed it -- over a modem the hearts are thumping, while in real life the teeth and claws are bared. This is one couple who have no idea what's in the making.

You've Got Mail is like a perfectly blended cappuccino. The casting is brilliant, the screenplay inventive and original and incredibly believable. Placing at odds two people so vastly different from one another, waging a war simply to keep their place in the business world, was a stroke of genius on the filmmaker's part; and Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks are ideal in their respective roles. The film manages to both entertain and leave the viewer with a few good thoughts to ponder... namely the effect that attitude has on everyone around you; as well as the fact that cruelty and revenge don't make the heart heal; they make it worse.

Unfortunately many people will say no to this memorable production because of the few broken chips in the batter. Joe Fox has a live-in girlfriend and apparently this style of living is nothing new to his family name: his grandfather has a daughter seven years old; and his father has a child (and is living) with a woman named Jillian. There are several remarks to lesbianism and cyber sex, a few innuendos, and a moderate amount of language. But despite its flaws, the film has a good heart and that's what will linger after the tape has stopped. 

My single concern in the romanticizing of this production lies with chat rooms and love connections through a modem in general. For those who realize the danger in having a relationship with someone "online," You've Got Mail is a fun, funny, and often likable treat. But teens should take the initiative to bear in mind that this is, after all, fiction. Truth can often be far more dangerous.