You've Got Mail

‘All that means is that it wasn’t personal to you. But it was personal for me.’ – Kathleen Kelly

The supposed romcom You’ve Got Mail does nothing particularly well as it attempts to show how romance is affected by the digital age.

While online Kathleen Kelly and Joe Fox are steadily falling in love, offline they become rivals as Fox’s superstore threatens the success of Kathleen’s independent book shop.

We’re introduced to the two stars as they are effectively cheating on their real-life partners as they secretly email each other. Though this is something they should be scolded for, it’s hard to sympathise with their respective partners as they show little to no personality. By the time Patricia unleashes her obnoxious side, it’s too late to garner any negative feelings to her character because it’s easy to figure out that we won’t be seeing much of her soon.

Even Frank who has much more screen time and whose over valuation of his writing career was a fun element, him no longer being present didn’t have a significant impact.

Kathleen shows the same brand of self-praise with her book shop and the naïve belief that she can combat a conglomerate with community love. This innocence carries into her love life as she continues to hold out faith and sees NY152 as the perfect man but refuses to extend this courtesy to his offline persona.

The romance in You’ve Got Mail, is an underlying aspect to the two business owners power struggle; however once this power struggle is over and the romance takes centre stage, the film becomes rapidly more boring as there is nothing interesting pushing their love story along. Yes, you do will for the protagonists to get together but more because you want the film to reach its conclusion rather than believing in true love.

A more interesting example of true love in You’ve Got Mail is between men and The Godfather. I, like Kathleen, have wondered ‘What is it with men and The Godfather?’, because after watching the original film and its sequel I don’t find the insight to the mafia family to be anything special. Yet it is still constantly cited by men in popular culture. Jay-Z’s reference to the film on the song Family Feud is the newest example I have encountered. This becomes another thing on the list that prevents Fox and Kelly from understanding each other. Many of the things that define who they are which they refuse to share online becomes an obstacle.

When the film did eventually reach its long-awaited conclusion, I couldn’t help but wonder, is that it? Which is an unavoidable question after viewing anything that has been highly praised in the court of public opinion.

If you’re in search of a film where rivals turn into to lovers there are better options. Actually, there are many romcoms that do everything better.