Signed, Sealed and Delivered ... Review on You've Got Mail Movie

I finally found someone…someone who could have been anyone….but I am so glad the someone was you….

I met you on the internet…an impersonal place…a place where it’s so easy to pretend, to hide, to betray…to discuss, to confide, to share…

I fell in love with you on the internet…

The Internet?? Online love?? Oh please….!! How can someone fall in love with a ‘nickname’ and a chat screen? It’s not even corny…it’s ridiculous!! Ahh..but then love doesn’t have a defined way of creeping onto you.

‘You’ve got mail’ came at a time when ‘chatting’ was at it’s peak; when friendfinder and wannadate.com were a romantic hope as well as a loneliness relieving tool for people.

She is a sentimental, sensitive and warm person. Outwardly strong, there were times when she needed someone to discuss her innermost fears with someone. Her business was falling apart, she was having doubts about her relationship…and it was so comfortable sharing these problems with someone anonymous, someone who didn’t know her and didn’t have expectations.

He is a tycoon with a soft heart. Business definitely comes first but it’s a close fight between his ‘Fox bookstore’ and his 7 year old aunt. On his off days, he loves playing ‘kids’ day out’ – indulging them and himself with whatever amuses them. After work, he checks his mail and waits for communication from ‘shopgirl’ – the online friend he has become so close to.

They don’t know anything about each other (establishing the ground rules for online security??…cynic) – no personal details – so, no way of discreetly finding out who they are. All they know is that they understand each other, enjoy their ‘mails’ and are very very compatible. So, they decide to meet….

But….But….He’s the reason She’s wrapping up her business!!! Woow…back off Joe Fox – you are going to destroy the dreams of the very girl you are dreaming of? Well…yes…he has to…but he wants to give her something else…something more to dream of…he wants to give her himself and his love!! And then starts the ‘courtship’ – a quaint word, I know…but it is a quaint movie – with frills and laces, with memories and sentiments, with waltzes and ballets, with chocolates and daisies, with romance that makes you sigh, humour that makes you mushy, with dogs and books – men’s best friends!!

“I want someone who fills my heart with a Joy beyond anything”

“ There’s always a dream of a special someone”

He brings her out of her depression of losing the business; he becomes her friend. He becomes the person she can depend on – he becomes someone who she begins to miss when he’s not around. She doesn’t know he’s the same ‘internet friend’ but…She still talks to NY152, she still shares..she becomes closer and closer to him as each mail and chat session passes (well, ok that was corny)…

He waits for her to love the person he is in real life….he gives her as much of his time and friendship….and then they meet…

“I was so hoping it would be you….so wanted him to be you”….

Watch the movie if you believe in love…watch it with an open mind and without the scepticism given to an ‘internet affair’…watch the movie for the adorable and genuine performances given by Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks….watch the movie for the pure sentimental fluttering in your smile, if not your heart, for the simplicity of the theme – not just the love between the main characters but also the way the ‘shop around the corner’, Kathleen’s bookshop for children is shown – it’s transports you into the early English era …and makes you long to browse in it.

The movie also focuses on the business ‘wars’ between Kathleen and Joe. The latter, unknowingly, advises Kathleen on how to fight against her competitors. It does make you laugh, the expression on Joe’s face and his reactions when the meek and mild Kathleen decides to jump into an anti – Fox movement. It does make you smile when the ‘knowing who she is now’ Joe has a proud smile on his face when he sees her being so tough and so brave when she is browsing through his store after hers has shut down. It does make you want to shake Kathleen for being so naïve and so sweet. It does make you feel emotional when her heart is tearing apart because her bookshop is dying. One of the most beautiful scenes of the movie is the where Kathleen remembers her mother when she’s clearing up the shop. It’s old fashioned , heart wrenching and so…so…pure.

As Meg Ryan asks so innocently “ Aren’t Daisies the friendliest flower??”

….It makes you wonder why have we grown up? Why do we have to look at everything with so much of suspicion? Why don’t we believe in the goodness of people and the beauty of life?..

Why don’t we just love….love?