You’ve Got Mail (1998) Review

The rise of the internet with email and instant messaging sees two people who hate each other fall for each other online.

Kathleen Kelly owns a small family book shop which has been in New York City for generations and she faces a battle when Fox books opens a megastore right next to her small shop. This then leads her to cross paths with Joe Fox, a ruthless business man who is just making things work for his company. It’s nothing personal but that is not how Kathleen sees it.

The more times I find myself watching this film the more I fall in love with it. It is quite scary how far social media and the internet has come since “You’ve Got Mail” – I am not just meaning the film with that. But when you logged into your computer (waited for dial-up to connect) and AOL would tell you that you had mail. Yes I got my first computer in 1998 and was online by 1999.

This film shows that it can be good to talk to people online and you can really talk to someone who you don’t actually know. You don’t have to worry about them judging you and you can really open up. This happened with Kathleen and Joe and they had no idea that each night they were talking to each other after having a couple of run ins with each other in the business world.

Joe does find out a lot sooner than Kathleen and you have to admit that it does seem pretty cruel that he then kept her going for a while. But in that time Joe tried to phase it out and get to know her better as Joe. If that makes much sense at all, if you have seen the film you will know what I mean.

Meg Ryan really did have a good time in the 90s with romantic comedies and this really is such a good one to revisit as the chemistry between Meg and Tom Hanks really is believable. It will often be compared to their first outing together in Sleepless in Seattle but I actually like this one a lot better. I think it has such a good heart with an interesting message.

Yes the internet has involved and parts of it may not be great but it does help show that you can really have friends online and it can be a good thing. I am not saying that you are going to fall in love online with someone, but you could certainly make good friends who you can talk to without feeling embarrassed about situations.

The supporting cast all fit in very well, which always helps in a rom-com and I really could watch this film over and over. It’s a nice easy watch and one of the my favourite rom-coms. I certainly think the 90s were the best for this genre.

Have you got mail today?