You’ve Got Mail
1998
Warner Bros. Pictures
Director: Nora Ephron

Before there was broadband and wireless Internet, there was dial-up. And when you had to go online using dial-up, there really was only one good choice: AOL. Perhaps you don’t remember, or you’ve never used it before, but AOL was THE way to connect to the internet: it was fast and convenient. It was certainly the way that I got connected. I have fond memories of watching the little yellow man run across the screen, the dial-up sounds and that phrase: “You’ve got mail”. Ah. Memories.

You’ve Got Mail is a Movie starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan; one of my favorite actors and my favorite actress. It’s a romantic comedy about people meeting online and falling in love. (Yes, online dating existed before match.com or eharmony.com) But, that’s not what I like about this movie. What I like about the movie is that they are bookstore owners.

Yup. You read that right: bookstore owners. You see Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan worked on a similar movie before, Sleepless in Seattle, and while that movie is great, I don’t love it as much as I love You’ve Got Mail.

I am a book loving person that has always dreamt of owning a small book store/library, just like Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan). Sometimes I see myself in her character: working at the store and reading to children. Then there’s the sad reality of Joe Fox (Tom Hanks), a big corporate owner, that doesn’t really love their bookstore as much as Kathleen, but still owns a huge chain store.

The movie is about how Joe Fox’s bookstore chain, Fox Books, takes over the small store, The Shop Around the Corner. What it means to the people who work there, and how Kathleen deals with it. There’s also the online chatting; the two meet each other unknowingly over the AOL, and how they fall in love.

This year I finally bought this movie and it’s now part of my small movie collection. I still leave it on whenever I catch it on cable. I also quote a lot of lines from it, which is how you know you love a movie, you quote it.

Favorite

The daisy scene: when Joe goes over to visit a sick Kathleen and he brings daisies. I love that dialog:

“…What is that supposed to mean? I am so sick of that. All that means is that it wasn’t personal to you. But it was personal to me. It’s personal to a lot of people. And what’s so wrong with being personal, anyway? … Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal”

And I also love the hotdog line:

“A HOTDOG is singing. You need quiet while a hotdog is singing?”

You HAVE to watch it.