Taglines: At odds in life… in love online.
You’ve Got Mail tells of Kathleen Kelly, who owns a children’s bookstore in New York. It is a small but profitable labor of love — until Foxbooks, a mega-chain of super-sized bookstores, begins building across the street. Joe Fox, an executive with the family-owned firm, is directly responsible for this particular branch. Kathleen despises Joe and everything he seems to stand for.
The future of her very livelihood is in doubt. When Kathleen and Joe are not working, they are logged onto their respective computers, where they’ve each met a wonderful friend. No one else has shared-or is even aware of-their intimate, anonymous electronic conversations that begin with the magic words “you’ve got mail.”
You’ve Got Mail is a 1998 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Nora Ephron, co-written by Nora and Delia Ephron, and starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. The film is about two people in an online romance who are unaware that they are also business rivals. It marks the third coupling of stars Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, who had previously appeared together in Joe Versus the Volcano (1990) and Sleepless in Seattle (1993).
You’ve Got Mail is based on the 1937 Hungarian play Parfumerie by Miklós László and its adaptations. Parfumerie was later remade as The Shop Around the Corner, a 1940 film by Ernst Lubitsch, which in 1949 was adapted as a movie musical, In the Good Old Summertime by Robert Z. Leonard starring Judy Garland, and finally in 1963 as a Broadway musical with She Loves Me by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick (composer and lyricist, respectively, of Fiddler on the Roof).
You’ve Got Mail updates that concept with the use of e-mail. Influences from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice can also be seen in the relationship between Joe Fox and Kathleen Kelly — a reference pointed out by these characters actually discussing Mr. Darcy and Miss Bennet in the film. The joke when Tom Hanks explains that the little girl is really his aunt is taken from Israel Zangwill’s story “A New Matrimonial Relation” in The Bachelors’ Club (1891).
Principal photography took place primarily in New York City’s Upper West Side. Delia Ephron, recalling the film’s bookstore setting, said, “Once we decided that she would be an independent-bookstore owner, the reason we made it a children’s bookstore is, I think, we always tried to make movies as personal as we could. To find the thing in it that was personal. And we grew up loving children’s books more than anything.”
Nora Ephron similarly remarked in the film’s audio commentary, “This was something that was very important to us—that there be first editions of old children’s books. It’s part of what make this a serious bookstore. We wanted to sell the idea that this was a place that really cared about the history of children’s literature.” Additionally, Ephron had Ryan and Burns work in an actual bookstore for a week prior to filming in order to get them into character. Michael Palin appeared in several scenes that were cut from the film.
You’ve Got Mail debuted No. 1 at the North American box office, earning $18.4 million over its opening weekend. It ultimately grossed $115,821,495 from the domestic market and $135,000,000 from foreign markets for a worldwide total of $250,821,495.
You’ve Got Mail received mildly positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a “Fresh” rating of 69% based on 83 reviews, with the critical consensus, “Great chemistry between the leads made this a warm and charming delight.” Metacritic gives a weighted average score of 57 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews”.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three-out-of-four stars and lauded the “immensely lovable” main characters. Janet Maslin of The New York Times also praised the film, writing of the leads, “Ms. Ryan plays her role blithely and credibly this time, with an air of freshness, a minimum of cute fidgeting and a lot of fond chemistry with Mr. Hanks. And he continues to amaze.
Once again, he fully inhabits a new role without any obvious actorly behavior, to the point where comparisons to James Stewart (…) really cannot be avoided.” Lael Loewenstein of Variety similarly called it a “winning romantic comedy” and praised the chemistry between Hanks and Ryan, writing, “they show why they are two of Hollywood’s most bankable and, in many ways, most traditional stars.” James Berardinelli further remarked:
You’ve Got Mail (1998)
Directed by: Nora Ephron
Starring: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Parker Posey, Jean Stapleton, Dave Chappelle, Steve Zahn, Greg Kinnear, Katie Finneran, Cara Seymour, Heather Burns, Hallee Hirsh
Screenplay by: Nora Ephron, Delia Ephron
Production Design by: Dan Davis
Cinematography by: John Lindley
Film Editing by: Richard Marks
Costume Design by: Albert Wolsky
Set Decoration by: Susan Bode, Ellen Christiansen
Art Direction by: Ray Kluga, Beth Kuhn
Music by: George Fenton
MPAA Rating: PG for some language.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: December 18, 1998
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