by Rich Elias, Dec 17, 1998

• 120 Minutes
• Rated PG
• 3 Stars

The Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan romantic comedy encourages you to think in exclamation marks while you watch it. Ryan plays Kathleen Kelly, the young owner of a children's bookstore (founded by her late mother) in New York City's upper west side. It's a neighborhood place, cozy, where everyone on the staff is slightly eccentric, where Kathleen hosts Saturday story hours for kids -- it's the kind of place bookstore magnate Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) puts out of business every time he opens a new discount outlet. His latest one in just around the corner from Kelly's shop.

With bankruptcy threatening, Kathleen has almost no one to turn to. Her boyfriend, a literary journalist played by Greg Kinnear, writes an article that gets the city's sympathy but doesn't help Kate's cash flow. Her only solace is an anonymous online friend cybernamed NY152 (her's is Shopgirl) whose e-mail exchanges provide both of them with comfort, advice, and emotional support. Of course, NY152 turns out to be Joe Fox.

"You've Got Mail" becomes an elaborate Meet Cute, in which Boy meets Girl under offbeat but endearing circumstances. The Meet Cute dates from the early days of Hollywood. Think of Buster Keaton stealing a rival's flowers to give to his lady love. For that matter, think of "Sleepless in Seattle," also starring Hanks and Ryan and also written and directed by Nora Ephron. Like "You've Got Mail," "Sleepless" was about the relationship between a man and woman who fall in love even though they've never met.

"You've Got Mail" updates the classic Hollywood comedy "The Shop Around the Corner" (1940), in which a lonely bookstore employee falls in love with her anonymous pen pal, who turns out to be a fellow employee. Joe Fox is more threatening, however. "You've Got Mail" plays their antagonistic business relationship off against their growing e-mail involvement.

If you haven't spent much time online, you may not find this side of their relationship convincing, but I believed it, believed it more than their business relationship. My wife makes fun of my "imaginary friends," men and women on Compuserve I've exchanged messages with almost daily for a dozen years but have never met. It sounds odd to say this, but such relationships can become as emotionally charged as relationships with "real" people. You think out loud with less risk when you're typing your thoughts to an anonymous stranger.

So I could see how NY152 and Shopgirl could connect. It was Joe and Kathleen who gave me a problem. Joe's store dismantles Kathleen's entire life, both her past and future. But all good love stories have to have a happy ending. My problem is that at key moments when Ryan was almost melting for Joe, I thought she should have pasted him one right in the kisser. As for Joe, his behavior in the second half of the movie builds to a baroque Meet Cute, but you have to wonder about a guy who first puts a girl out of business and then plays her like a trout on the line.

The screenplay by Ephron and her sister Delia relies on wit and warmth to get past such embarrassments. Its real strength, though, lies in wonderful supporting characters like Hanks' girlfriend (Parker Posey), Ryan's boyfriend, or Kathleen's slightly dotty bookkeeper (Jean Stapleton). Each gets a moment, a good scene, to make an impression.

As for Hanks and Ryan, her job is to convince us that Kathleen Kelly is a city-smart, independent, outspoken young woman who is also an emotional muddle and softie at heat. Ryan relies too heavily on gestures that make us think "perky!" or "spunky!" but remind us too often of other movies in which she's been perky and spunky. Hanks is more interesting to watch if only because his character knows what is happening; hers doesn't. The actor's job is to convince us that he can put Ryan out of business and fall in love with her at the same time.

It's fluff but fun. Ephron, Hanks, and Ryan file down all the rough edges, turning "You've Got Mail" into as smooth a romantic comedy as I've seen in a long time.