Meg Ryan’s best romantic films that led to “What Happens Later”
Yet another Ryan and Hanks classic, “You’ve Got Mail” is a movie for the internet age. The film is a love letter to finding love through the internet. It’s like Nora Ephron predicted the digital dating age before she even got to see it fruition herself. But in this late ’90s rom-com based on the play and then film “The Shop Around the Corner,” Ryan plays an independent bookstore owner Kathleen who is AOL messaging a penpal named Joe (Hanks), whom she doesn’t realize is one of the family members who runs a mega bookstore chain called Fox Books. In real life, Joe and Kathleen are enemies — Joe is a corporate suit who is essentially running Kathleen out of business when a new Fox Books opens around the corner from Kathleen’s family bookstore.
In capitalistic fashion, Kathleen has to close her bookstore because of Fox Books but ironically she forms a friendship with Joe. Joe also figures out that Kathleen is his pen pal on AOL but continues to be her friend. Slowly but surely, the pair fall in love, and in one of the rom-com’s best lines, Kathleen tells Joe, “I wanted it to be you” at the 91st Street Garden.
“You’ve Got Mail” is controversial for its plot – in which many viewers felt Joe deceived Kathleen and is rewarded with a happy ending – but again the chemistry between Hanks and Ryan shines so bright it’s easy to forget the problematic aspects of storytelling in this film. It’s why it’s one of my favorites.
Comments