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You've Got Mail: Special Edition
You've Got Mail, Nora Ephron's follow-up to Sleepless in Seattle (and loosely based on Ernst Lubitsch's 1934 The Shop Around The Corner) plays off its best-known strengths — namely, Nora and Delia Ephron's witty writing, Meg Ryan's eternally youthful persona, and the considerable comic talents of Tom Hanks. Ryan stars as Kathleen Kelly, the gorgeous-but-still-single owner of an independent Manhattan children's bookstore who may be driven out of business once discount-tome monolith Fox Books opens a new superstore in the same neighborhood. While she is engaged to a well-known New York journalist (Greg Kinnear), Kathleen is most comfortable sharing her deepest feelings and fears with an anonymous online chat-buddy she met on AOL — unaware that her romantic Mr. Mystery is none other than Joe Fox (Hanks), the bookselling millionaire who also takes solace in their late-night Internet epistles. You've Got Mail is predictable cornball fare, but Ephron's frothy script still has an acerbic quality that keeps you watching until you are smothered by the warm n' fuzzy conclusion. Also starring Parker Posey, Steve Zahn, Jean Stapleton, David Chappelle, and Dabney Coleman. Good transfer, DD 5.1. The numerous special-edition supplements include a commentary track with Ephron and producer Lauren Shuler-Donner, an isolated musical score track, an HBO "First Look" short, an interactive tour of Manhattan's Upper West Side, a trailer, and textual supplements.
—JJB
