I happen to be a fan of Romantic Comedies. My faves have always been those of Capra, Lubitsch, Sturges, etc. They have the romantic comedies that I watch over and over again. I can't think of how many times I've watched UNFAITHFULLY YOURS (not the Dudley Moore version you scoundrel!) But as of the last decade or so, I've come to love the Meg Ryan flicks in this genre. I don't know what it is about her films, but they always seem to get me. So knowing this, and being a fan of Tom Hanks'... well... I've been waiting for the first test screening results of YOU HAVE MAIL. I got one response.... He liked it. I'd love to hear from more of you on this film, there are some light spoilers below, but over all the review is pretty positive.
I caught a screening of YOU'VE GOT MAIL earlier tonight. It was held at the Sony Theatres in the basement of the Virgin Megastore in Times Square.
Although I have a media job (albeit computer-related), I rarely get invited to these things, so this was a bit of a treat. I used to really be into movies, but now I'm into theatre - I see from 100-150 plays a year in NY, and only about 10-30 movies a year, not including the infrequent visit to the Toronto Film Fest (where I saw 15 movies in 3 days last year). I still follow movies closely and cherry-pick the best stuff to see (recent stuff I've liked: RYAN, SPANISH PRISONER, OPPOSITE OF SEX, PI).
Just before the screening, a guy came out front to say that there were temporary title credits, no final credits, some rough edits (you could see the splices over about half a dozen transitions), and a temporary soundtrack and songs. I recognized some music from Randy Newman's AVALON score, as well as at least one Newman song and some stuff from either WHEN HARRY MET SALLY or a Woody Allen movie.
I'm not really into romantic comedies; I usually enjoy the roughly-one-a year I manage to catch (BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING, 4 WEDDINGS, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, etc.). MAIL is of the same calibre as those movies, and I was was charmed and pleased by it. It's hardly an earth-shattering movie (what romantic comedy is?) and it doesn't have the originality of similar romantic hits of the recent past, but the story line is fool-proof, and updating it to the internet age is a stroke of genius; it's surprising no one thought of it earlier. I think MAIL is going to be huge, based on the excellent Hanks/Ryan chemistry (both are in fine form here) and star power, the internet hook grafted onto the iron-clad plot, and the close-to-G-rating.
As everyone knows by now, MAIL is an updating of Lubitsch's SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (which itself was based on an play and later remade as IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME as well as one of my favorite musicals, SHE LOVES ME). Hanks and Ryan are romancing either other by email on AOL, though they haven't revealed their identities. Within the first 1/2 hour, they meet face to face (not knowing they're email correspondents) and shortly become enemies because he's a discount book chain owner - think Barnes and Noble - gobbling up independent booksellers like her (she owns a charming kid's bookshop a few doors down from his latest store on the upper West Side in NY). Both are currently in relationships (he with Parker Posey, she with Greg Kinner; both are excellent). Just in case we didn't notice the plot resemblance, the her bookstore is called Shop Around The Corner - d'uh! (BTW, she owns an Apple Powerbook, he owns a Dell laptop. I use AOL 3 for Mac; the AOL login screens they show don't look like what see, maybe they're using AOL 4 or a "moviefied" version; conveniently, their computers are never off, so we never have to watch them impatiently waiting for their computers to boot up; his screen name is NY152; hers is shopgirl.)
I remember seeing GOOD OLD a long time ago, but I know SHE LOVES ME very well, and MAIL hews fairly closely to several major plot points of the musical including
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the the pivotal scene when they arrange by email to meet at a cafe, and a later scene when he visits her when she's sick. One plot element that one tends to forgive with the earlier versions is that he has the upper hand in the relationship for the second half of the movie, as he knows who his email pal is while she doesn't. It's not really addressed in this movie - he reveals who he is in the last 2 minutes, you get a nice closeup of Ryan's initial confusion mixed with some hurt before they hug, but he's not the least bit guilty about manipulating her for the last 20 minutes of the movie.
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The movie is about 15 minutes too long (the running time is currently 2 hours) and it has a synthetic feel (probably because it's a remake) but on the whole, the movie is smoothly and enjoyably directed by Ephron (whom I believe co-wrote the script). I never saw SLEEPLESS, which would be the most appropriate yardstick to measure this by but I suspect it'll do as well commercially. In passing I should mention that NY looks great in this movie, which is especially fun because I live close to the movie's locale (upper west side, near Broadway and 72nd.)
