 |
BY KIM MORGAN
|
|
You've Got Mail Rated PG Opens Friday, Dec. 18 Follow this recipe for a date-movie smash hit. A woman corresponds with a man she has never met. They decide to meet. They're both lovable moppets with crinkly smiles, and they really love each other. They overcome the usual narrative opposition, and their relationship works out. Cast Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks and add some wacky sidekicks. Slate Nora Ephron (When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle) as screenwriter and director. Get Carly Simon or Carole King--any type of vanilla extract will work--for original songs, and throw in an old Louis Armstrong tune for spice. Add a dash of modern pontificating, but not enough to make it too foreign-tasting. Whip to a light, fluffy froth. Serve warm. What do we call Hollywood's not-so-newest confection? When Harry Met Sally Part II? Still Sleepless in Seattle? Almost. You've Got Mail follows the same old date-movie formula, with a slight twist. The modernized version brings in technology and consumer culture. Ho hum. Even the high-tech touch can't spice up this old omelette. Not simply a lazy imitation of recent hits, this Ryan and Hanks romantic comedy is supposedly based on an old recipe. Ephron's script is an adaptation of The Shop Around the Corner, the 1940 Ernst Lubitsch classic starring Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan as two opposites who unknowingly court each other through a lonely hearts club. This time, the lovers court via e-mail. Meg Ryan plays Kathleen (cyber name: "Shopgirl"), a sweet woman who runs a small children's bookstore called The Shop Around the Corner in New York City. Tom Hanks plays Joe (cyber name "NY152"), a rich businessman with a hidden soft heart who owns Manhattan's largest book superchain, Fox and Sons. With his cappuccinos and discounts, he plans to put every independent bookstore out of business, including Kathleen's, which is just around the corner from his new store. The two are enemies. She hates his impersonality and ignorance; he hates her self-righteous bookishness. She wants to make others happy, while he just wants to make money. But both are looking for love, which they eventually find in a parallel universe. The unlikely pair has been corresponding secretly through the anonymous world of America Online, even though both have partners in the real world. Kathleen's is a newspaper columnist (Greg Kinnear) who shuns technology and sticks to his typewriter; Joe's is a humorously bitchy editor (Parker Posey). But what will happen when NY152 and Shopgirl realize the truth about each other's identity? You already know what happens: Two people find love against the odds. It's a typical story about people, love and business, with an added attempt to hit the Truman Show audience with its wink-wink messages about consumer culture. A lot of these messages contradict themselves. The film seems to be against the Barnes & Noble/Starbucks invasion of America, and it does boast some clever lines to that effect: Joe comments that Starbucks is loved by people who never get to make decisions in life except when they order their double-tall, half-caf cappuccinos; Kathleen uses Baby Gap as a metaphor for depression. But the film embraces these trends as it knocks them. Kathleen watches the Home Shopping Network, goes to a movie in a Cineplex theater (what about all the independent movie houses?) and finds love on America Online (insert trademark here). While the film does seem to endorse falling in love through the Internet, it's hardly plausible. How many people hunched over their computers writing anonymous love letters look like Ryan and Hanks? The in-your-face human interaction is more believable; Ryan and Hanks have good chemistry together, even though Ryan often overdoes her emotional-yet-independent-female schtick, sniffing and throwing Kleenexes. Hanks plays a more brittle romantic lead than usual (you can still see Saving Private Ryan on his face), and he fleshes out a stock character in understated moments of pain and snide wit. He's not too nice, thank god, but naturally the movie is. Even with the wonderful Parker Posey (who needed more screen time), You've Got Mail is just another formulaic romantic comedy hot out of the Hollywood oven. Tastes sweet. Serves millions. Nothing new.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
|
