Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1209 in DVD
• Released on: 1999-08-23
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Arabic
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 114 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
By now, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan have amassed such a fund of goodwill with moviegoers that any new onscreen pairing brings nearly reflexive smiles. In You've Got Mail, the quintessential boy and girl next door repeat the tentative romantic crescendo that made Sleepless in Seattle, writer-director Nora Ephron's previous excursion with the duo, a massive hit. The prospective couple do actually meet face to face early on but Mail otherwise repeats the earlier feature's gentle, extended tease of saving its romantic resolution until the final, gauzy shot.

The underlying narrative is an even more old-fashioned romantic pas de deux that is casually hooked to a newfangled device. The script, cowritten by the director and her sister, Delia Ephron, updates and relocates the Ernst Lubitsch classic, The Shop Around the Corner, to contemporary Manhattan, where Joe Fox (Hanks) is a cheerfully rapacious merchant whose chain of book superstores is gobbling up smaller, more specialized shops such as the children's bookstore owned by Kathleen Kelly (Ryan). Their lives run in close parallel in the same idealized neighbourhood yet they first meet anonymously, online, where they gradually nurture a warm, even intimate correspondence. As they begin to wonder whether this e-mail flirtation might lead them to be soul mates, however, they meet and clash over their colliding business fortunes.

It's no small testament to the two stars that we wind up liking and caring about them despite the inevitable (and highly manipulative) arc of the plot. Although their chemistry transcended the consciously improbable romantic premise of Sleepless, enabling director Ephron to attain a kind of amorous soufflé, this time around there's a slow leak that considerably deflates the affair. Less credulous viewers will challenge Joe's logic in prolonging the concealment of his online identity from Kathleen, and may shake their heads at Ephron's reinvention of Manhattan as a spotless, sun-dappled wonderland where everybody lives in million-dollar apartments and colour co-ordinates their wardrobes for cocktail parties. --Sam Sutherland

Video Description
DVD Special Features

Interactive Menus
Scene Access
Trailer
Commentary with Nora Ephron and Lauren Shuler-Donner
HBO First Look Special: A Conversation with Nora Ephron
Discover New York's Upper West Side (11 selectable clips)
2-Channel Music Only
Language in Dolby Digital 5.1: English
Subtitles: English/Arabic/English for the hearing impaired

Synopsis
Based on the classic film The Shop Around the Corner, this tale of pen-pal romance has been updated for the internet age. Hanks plays a book mega-store owner who falls in love over e-mail with the owner of a struggling children's bookstore, played by Ryan.

Customer Reviews

The ultimate feel-good movie
If you look up the word "adorable" in the dictionary, you will see a picture of Meg Ryan. It's true; try it! She is so precious in this film that everyone will fall in love with her. She is the kind of girl that men drool over and women want as their best friend. Tom Hanks' photo can be found under the word "perfect," as in understanding, loving, mature, and funny. Put the two of them together and "You've Got Mail" is the ultimate feel-good movie.

Hanks plays the big, bad chain book store owner who moves into the neighborhood and drives poor little bookshop owner Ryan out of business. Neither realizes they are, in fact, the secret e-mail admirers they've been pouring their hearts out to for months. He finds out first, builds a solid friendship with her, and when she discovers the wonderful secret, all's right with the world.

Yes, it's corny and totally predictable. It's also about an hour too long, but one overlooks this when enjoying the sight of two such beautiful people finding true love. The gorgeous location photography helps set the fairy tale mood; New York City never looked lovelier. The city takes on a cozy, small-town feel, where it seems perfectly possible for two strangers to meet and fall in love. The lovely soundtrack, made up of soft rock and bittersweet ballads, adds to the romance.

I recommend this film as a romantic date movie or a girls-night-out flick. It's silly and wonderful, and Meg and Tom are so right together.

A feel-good romantic comedy
This is a gentle romantic comedy, no whizz bang action and no steamy sex scenes, just good old-fashioned love. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are book-sellers who become hooked on each other via the Internet without realising they do actually know each other and are business rivals. It's predictable, you know Hanks will get his girl, but it still brings a tear to the eye when they finally get it together. 'You've Got Mail' is a sweet love story - get it, watch it and you know you'll feel better.

How a romantic comedy should be
I can't recommend this film enough. It's smart, funny and Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are as always superbly cast together.

Based on the film "The Shop around the corner", and in my opinion echoes parts of the fantastic "Pride and Prejudice" this is the ultimate love story. Joe Fox owns one of the biggest chain book stores and opens a new store around the corner from Kathleen Kelly's modest family book shop. Both go into competition against each other not realising they are friends who met over the internet.

Fantastic support from Greg Kinnear and not forgetting to mention the beautifully shot New York city.

All in all - fantastic romantic comedy.