You’ve Got Mail (1998) VHS Movie Review

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You’ve Got Mail was released into theaters on December 18, 1998, on a budget of $65 million and made $250.8 million at the box office.

Directed by Nora Ephron who also directed When Harry Met Sally (1989) and Sleepless in Seattle (1993).

Nora Ephron also produced this film and co-wrote the screenplay with her sister Delia Ephron. This movie is based on the play Parfumerie by Miklós László.

You’ve Got Mail Cast
Tom Hanks as Joe Fox
Meg Ryan as Kathleen Kelly
Parker Posey as Patricia Eden
Jean Stapleton as Birdie Conrad
Greg Kinnear as Frank Navasky
Steve Zahn as George Pappas
Heather Burns as Christina Plutzker
Dave Chappelle as Kevin Jackson

You’ve Got Mail VHS Trailers
You’ve Got Mail Soundtrack promo

You’ve Got Mail Plot
Before the movie begins, we are treated to an astonishing 90’s opening credits of dial-up internet sounds and early 3D rendering that made my heart swell with joy. Kathleen Kelly is involved with Frank Navasky, a leftist newspaper writer for The New York Observer who is always in search of an opportunity to write for the underdog. While Frank is devoted to his typewriter, Kathleen prefers her laptop and logging into her AOL email account. Using the screen name “Shopgirl,” she reads an email from “NY152”, the screen name of Joe Fox, whom she first met in an “over-30s” chatroom. As her voice narrates her reading of the email, she reveals the boundaries of the online relationship: no specifics, including no names, career or class information, or family connections. These opening scenes are an overload of 90’s sounds from the internet loading to the AOL robot voice of “You’ve Got Mail.”

Joe belongs to the Fox family that runs Fox Books a chain of mega-bookstores. Kathleen runs the independent bookstore The Shop Around The Corner that her mother ran before her. The two are shown passing each other on their separate ways to work, revealing that they visit the same neighborhoods in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Joe arrives at work, supervising the opening of a new Fox Books in New York City with the help of his best friend, branch manager Kevin. Kathleen and her three store assistants, George, Aunt Birdie, and Christina, open up her small shop that morning.

Following a day with his 11-year-old aunt Annabel and 4-year-old half-brother Matthew, Joe enters Kathleen’s store to let his younger relatives experience story time. Joe and Kathleen have a conversation that shows Kathleen’s fears about the Fox Books store opening around the corner. He withholds his last name and makes a sharp exit with the children. At a publishing party for New York book business people later that week, Joe and Kathleen meet again where Kathleen discovers Joe’s true identity. She accuses him of deception and spying, while he responds by disparaging her bookstore.

The Shop Around the Corner slowly goes out of business. Kathleen enters Fox Books to discover the store is friendly and relaxed yet without the same dedication to or knowledge of children’s books as her shop. Her employees move on: Christina goes job hunting, George gets a job at the children’s department at the Fox Books store, and Birdie retires.

When the two finally decide to meet, Joe discovers with whom he has been corresponding. At first, he chooses not to meet her but then joins her without revealing his online identity, leading them to argue once more. Joe later resumes the messages, apologizes, and promises to tell her why he stood her up eventually.

After both quietly break up with their significant others, Joe realizes his feelings towards Kathleen and begins building a face-to-face relationship, still keeping his online identity a secret. He plans a meeting between his online persona and her, but just before she is to meet her online friend, Joe reveals his feelings for her. When she is waiting for “NY152” at the meeting spot, she sees Joe and his dog, realizing he was “NY152” the whole time.

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