I’m feeling sappy and nostalgic tonight. And one of my top ten favorite movies is on. Ive watched it twice in the past two weeks. I’ve loved You’ve Got Mail since it debuted in 1998. I love it. Simply adore it. It is one of the last good romantic comedies made besides Love Actually and that’s not actually a fair comparison. There were so many good romantic comedies made in the 90s. When Harry Met Sally and You’ve Got Mail are my two favorites. The writing, the acting, the music, the actors. It’s magic that doesn’t happen often, but when it does — wow.
You’ve Got Mail is based on 1942’s The Shop Around the Corner, which is an amazing film with Jimmy Stewart, Margaret Sullivan, and Frank Morgan. You know Morgan as the Wizard in Wizard of Oz. The film is based in Budapest because the director was Hungarian and the couple are romantic pen pals who unknowingly (for half the film) work in the same small shop and hate each other. Jimmy Stewart discovers who his pen pal is and the ending is much like its modern remake.
The 1949 remake, In the Good Old Summertime, with Judy Garland and Van Johnson is a musical (of all things) and is set in a music shop (bingo). Just as before, they are pen pals. This version never hits the highs of the original or the former. Plus, singing.
Which brings us to You’ve Got Mail. Instead of pen pals, we have Meg Ryan, a small bookstore owner and Tom Hanks, the big Barnes and Noble-type chain store. They meet in an AOL chat room, then start instant messaging. They confide in each other, become friends, then you know the rest. It’s a great story. I’m positive it will be remade by the post-millennial generation.
By then it might be messages through Amazon’s Echo, who knows.
This is the scene that makes me cry when Tom Hanks finishes his little speech.
This is the scene that makes me cry for the second time. The end.
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