Saturday March 24th 2007 Tom Hank

Film 1: ‘You've Got Mail’

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By now, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan have amassed such a fund of goodwill with moviegoers that any new onscreen pairing brings nearly reflexive smiles. In You've Got Mail, the quintessential boy and girl next door repeat the tentative romantic crescendo that made Sleepless in Seattle, writer-director Nora Ephron's previous excursion with the duo, a massive hit. The prospective couple do actually meet face to face early on, but Mail otherwise repeats the earlier feature's gentle, extended tease of saving its romantic resolution until the final, gauzy shot.

The underlying narrative is an even more old-fashioned romantic pas de deux that is casually hooked to a newfangled device. The script, cowritten by the director and her sister, Delia Ephron, updates and relocates the Ernst Lubitsch classic, The Shop Around the Corner, to contemporary Manhattan, where Joe Fox (Hanks) is a cheerfully rapacious merchant whose chain of book superstores is gobbling up smaller, more specialized shops such as the children's bookstore owned by Kathleen Kelly (Ryan). Their lives run in close parallel in the same idealized neighborhood, yet they first meet anonymously, online, where they gradually nurture a warm, even intimate correspondence. As they begin to wonder whether this e-mail flirtation might lead them to be soul mates, however, they meet and clash over their colliding business fortunes.

Film 1: ‘Sleepless in Seattle’

Reviewer:C. Alegria "rayvinonk" (Arizona, USA)

Sam and Jonah Baldwin, father and son, have lost the most important woman in their lives to cancer. Seeking to escape from the painful memories that lurk in every nook and cranny of Chicago, they move to Seattle. Eighteen months later, Jonah can sense that his dad is still sad; and, in desperation calls a nationally syndicated radio self-help guru on Christmas Eve to wish for his father a new wife. Annie Reed lives in Baltimore and is engaged to Walter. Their relationship, while loving and comfortable, is entirely devoid of romantic sparks. When Annie hears Jonah's soulful plea on the radio, it's as if her heart has been touched by "magic" and she is determined to find out why she feels so powerfully drawn to Sam and his son ... even if it means traveling across "like 26 states".

The critique ...
Sleepless in Seattle is a brilliantly simple film; that's what makes it so great. To quote Nora Ephron, "It isn't a movie about love, it's a movie about love in the movies." To emphasize this point, she incorporates various parallel references to "An Affair to Remember" throughout the film; but, Sleepless is also a movie about our genuine romantic fantasies and sentimental ideals about falling in love (which, let's admit it, have been undeniably shaped by what we've seen on the silver screen). The script is refreshingly candid, yet endearing and Nora Ephron's direction is impeccable. Ross Malinger, cast as Jonah Baldwin, is the youngest and most notable talent in the film. He does an excellent job of portraying THE quintessential eight-year-old; he's impulsive, moody and thinks he knows it all. (I speak from experience here folks; I currently have a son that age.) He and Tom Hanks come together flawlessly as father and son; so successfully in fact, that they would be utterly convincing off screen. The chemistry between Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks is equally amazing, which is no small achievement considering the fact that they rarely appear together in a scene. The supporting cast is brimming with talent and includes Rosie O'Donnell, Bill Pullman, Rita Wilson, Rob Reiner, David Hyde Pierce, and a young Gaby Hoffmann. Families with younger children will appreciate the film's integrity; there is very little foul language ("God damn it" and " ... it scared the shit out of me ..." being the worst of it) and no "sexual content" to be wary of. All around, this is a winning film. One that I find myself watching over and over and over again.