You've Got Mail (1998)

Genre

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Director

Nora Ephron

Country

USA

Cast

Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Parker Posey, Jean Stapleton, Greg Kinnear, Steve Zahn, Heather Burns, Dave Chappelle, Dabney Coleman, John Randolph, Deborah Rush, Hallee Hirsh, Jeffrey Scaperrotta, Cara Seymour, Peter Mian, Sara Ramirez, Jane Adams, Michael Badalucco, Veanne Cox, Reiko Aylesworth

Storyline

The owner  of a large bookstore chain (Tom Hanks) starts putting the owner of a small local bookstore (Meg Ryan) out of business. The two of them can't stand each other, but what they don't know is that they have been corresponding over the internet for a while without knowing who either of them are, and they are falling in love. 

Opinion

If you know me, you know that romantic comedies are not my cup of tea. I mean, who would like to watch an unrealistic story about ordinary people finding love in a hopeless place? Not me, I know who. But sometimes I make exceptions, especially when the movie is a classic and basically everyone has seen it. Last night being one of those, I finally watched "You've Got Mail". And it wasn't as bad as I thought.

Sure, the film is sugary, and the stereotypical chick flick but it's quite enjoyable, and it is ultimately worth the time because of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan beautiful chemistry. 

The story is predictable and sappy, but nobody would ever expect to find deep psychology in a romantic dramedy. It sure does feel like a type of story you have seen before, but for once it isn't as unrealistic as they usually are. Hating someone in person, but having a different relationship with them through the internet is more than possible if you don't know who the other is. Sometimes we tend to perceive someone as if they were their jobs, and seeing things from a different perspective can be very helpful.

Anyway, the romance doesn't develop properly until the last half an hour, and Tom Hanks's character is just so cruel. I mean, you find out that the woman you have fallen in love online is your rival in business, yet you still decide to destroy the only things she cares about, her mother's bookstore. And only after doing that, you try to befriend her? It's an awful thing to do.

Tom Hanks gives another solid performance as Joe Fox, but I wouldn't say he is at his best. And his character is too unsympathetic for most of the film. Meg Ryan is delightful as Kathleen Kelly, and like I mentioned before her chemistry with Hanks is wonderful. Is it better than "Sleepless in Seattle"? I don't know, I haven't seen it.

Manhattan (1979)

Genre

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Director

Woody Allen

Country

USA

Cast

Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Michael Murphy, Mariel Hemingway, Meryl Streep, Anne Byrne, Michael O'Donoghue, Wallace Shawn, Karen Ludwig

Storyline

The life of Isaac Davis (Woody Allen), a divorced writer of TV shows dating a 17-year-old girl (Mariel Hemingway), is further complicated when he meets Mary (Diane Keaton), the mistress of his married best friend Yale (Michael Murphy).

Opinion

Woody Allen once said, "I'm never happy with my films when I finish them. Just about always. And in the case of Manhattan I was so disappointed that I didn't want to open it. I wanted to ask United Artists not to release it. I wanted to offer them to make one free movie, if they would just throw it away." Isn't life odd? The film that has disappointed Allen so much is one of his most beloved and successful films, acclaimed both by critics and audience.

Beautiful, delightful and humorous, "Manhattan" is one of the best romantic comedies ever made as well as a stunning ode to New York City.

Woody Allen made another masterpiece whose main theme is the crisis of the intellectual and his inadequacy to the society he lives in, the problems of ineptitude and the inability of the protagonist to managed his own inner, sentimental life. Isaac, a writer always looking for inspiration, doesn't seem to find the opening words for his book and spends entire days taking notes, at the mercy of love and of a city he loves so much but seems unable to live in.

What makes "Manhattan" such a great film is also its complex, neurotic and verbose characters, who all just want to love and to be loved in return. Because of its characters, it is a film everyone can identify with: if on the one hand there is the inept, Isaac, on the other hand there is the winner, Yale, who is able to live in the world that surrounds him, that's why he is a winner.

As mentioned before, the film is also a spectacular ode to New York. In fact, the gorgeous black and white cinematography by Gordon Willis manages on several occasions to make the Big Apple look like the most fascinating city in the whole world, beauty even more enhanced by the first minutes of the film, when the city wakes up to the tune of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue".

As for the acting, it might be the best of any Allen film. Woody Allen does great with his usual stand-up persona and allowing the character of Isaac to be more than just neurotic and narcissistic. Michael Murphy also does a great job as Yale, able to command our sympathy for the most unlikable character in the film. Diane Keaton gives one of her best performances as the intellectual and whimsical Mary. 

My analyst warned me, but you were so beautiful I got another analyst. - Isaac Davis