You've Got Mail 1998

It seems fitting to blog about Nora Ephron's film You've Got Mail this week. I never really thought of myself as a Nora Ephron fan, but I guess I am. And this film is an adorable slice of the 1990s. Remember when it was exciting to get email? Before spam?

How can you not love a RomCom about books that refers to Pride and Prejudice in a lovely scene in a coffee shop where the guy has actually read the book (even though he can't stand it)? Ah, yes,and he has a Golden Retriever to boot!

Kathleen Kelly: Confession. I have read Pride and Prejudice two hundred times. I get lost in the language, words like 'Thither, Mischance, Felicity'. I'm always in agony over whether Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are going to get together. Ah! Read it. I know you'll love it.

Meg Ryan as Kathleen Kelly

Kathleen Kelly: Once I read a story about a butterfly in the subway, and today, I saw one! It got on at 42nd and off at 59th, where, I assume, it was going to Bloomingdales to buy a hat that will turn out to be a mistake, as almost all hats are.

Tom Hanks as Joe Fox

Joe Fox: Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address. On the other hand, this not knowing has its charms.

The Shop Around The Corner

Kathleen Kelly: When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does.  

 

Joe Fox: The whole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee. Short, tall, light, dark, caf, decaf, low-fat, non-fat, etc. So people who don't know what the hell they're doing or who on earth they are can, for only $2.95, get not just a cup of coffee but an absolutely defining sense of self: Tall. Decaf. Cappuccino.

Joe Fox: I could never be with someone who like Joni Mitchell. "It's clouds illusions I recall/I really don't know clouds at all." What does that mean? Is she a pilot? Is she taking flying lessons? It's probably a metaphor for something, but I don't know what.

Joe Fox: Don't cry, Shopgirl. Don't cry.
Kathleen Kelly: I wanted it to be you. I wanted it to be you so badly.

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Thanks Nora. We're really going to miss you. But we'll always have You've Got Mail!