You’ve Got Mail is a romantic comedy film directed by Nora Ephron. The plot sees millionaire Joe Fox (Tom Hanks), begin emailing independent bookstore owner Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan). For most of the film they don’t know who is on the other end of the email. However, the two do have many interactions in the real world and hate each other bitterly, can you see where this is going?
This film manages to do the impossible, it makes Tom Hanks unlikable. Both the characters in this are deeply unlikeable and cliché filled, but before I get into that I just want to tell you a little something about Tom Hank’s character. So he is a ruthless millionaire you seems to care about no one but himself, he treats the people around him like dirt, he drives sales of Kathleen’s bookstore so low they are forced to close. If all that wasn’t bad enough, he catfishes her, he realises far before she does that they have been emailing each other, and rather than tell her decides to play games with her; he is a sadist.
So why pray tell should we root for them to be together? What sort of message is that sending? Hey kids its okay to play with people’s feelings and manipulate them for your own amusement, questionable to say the least. Meg Ryan’s character is little better, but she is highly irritating from the get-go, as she encapsulates the self-righteousness of a small business owner in the worst and most stereotypical way, her high-road approach is grating.
Overall, maybe this was a ‘you had to be there’ sort of film. To me, I can’t understand why this is considered a modern classic. Both the leads are vapid, self-entitled, arseholes and the message is a toxic as they come. Maybe I am missing something.
Pros.
The generic rom com beats.
Cons.
The message of the film- cat-fishing is not romantic
Both the leads are awful people.
You don’t or shouldn’t want the leads to be together.
It feels cliché and lacklustre.
1.5/5
Reviewed by Luke
Another Millennial Reviewer 