THE AISLE SEAT - "YOU'VE GOT MAIL"

by Mike McGranaghan

Nora Ephron writes and directs. Meg Ryan plays an impossibly cute woman involved in a relationship with a man who's half a meathead. Tom Hanks plays an utterly charming guy hoping to fill the void in his life. They don't know each other, but are connected though a form of electronic communication. Eventually, the fates bring them together and they fall in love. That formula was the basis for 1993's Sleepless in Seattle, and it's also the basis for You've Got Mail. You know the old saying: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

There are a few slight alterations in the formula this time. It's e-mail instead of the radio now, and Hanks doesn't play a widower (although he is in an empty relationship). And the falling in love part? Well, if you thought two people on opposite coasts trying to find one another was an obstacle, you haven't seen anything yet.

Ryan plays Kathleen Kelly, the owner of a small children's book store (named "The Shop Around the Corner" after the 1940 film on which You've Got Mail is based). She dates a technology-hating newspaper columnist (Greg Kinnear), although at night she secretly sends e-mail messages to someone she met in a chat room. Kathleen does not realize that her e-mail buddy is Joe Fox (Hanks), the owner of a book superstore that has opened across the street and now threatens to put her out of business. Fox is her mortal enemy in person, but her private passion in the anonymous internet.

At first, Joe doesn't realize this either. Although initially charmed by Kathleen, he comes to resent the way she portrays him as the Big Bad Wolf when a local TV station covers her plight. "She's beautiful, but she's a pill," he tells his colleague Kevin (Dave Chappelle). Meanwhile, as the little shop tries to stay afloat, Kathleen decides whether she should meet her electronic pen pal. It's extremely amusing watching these two bicker, unaware that they are sharing their innermost thoughts at night. At one point, a clueless Joe even gives her advice on foiling the man who is trying to wreck her business.

One of the funny things about You've Got Mail is the way it combines an innocent, sweetly old-fashioned plot with modern-day technology. The film has the feel of a cozy old black-and-white romantic comedy, yet it deals with the phenomenon of e-mail - an advancement that has made written communication popular again. You couldn't have made this movie five years ago; letter writing was all but dead. These days, everyone has an e-mail address, and the speed and ease of e-mailing has turned writing into a hip activity again.

To pull off this mixture of old and new, you need the right stars. Hanks and Ryan (who teamed in the vastly underrated Joe Versus the Volcano as well as Sleepless) are the right match. Both are immensely likable, as well as funny. Both radiate goodness and decency. It's almost impossible not to like them. And best of all, they have great chemistry. You can see it in Sleepless, a film where they have no scenes together until the end, yet the audience knows by that point that they absolutely belong together. In You've Got Mail, Hanks and Ryan have plenty of scenes together. I think they constitute one of the great screen pairings of all time.

Nora Ephron is just the right person to direct a story like this with stars like these. The style of her movies tends to be nostalgic: unassumingly pleasant with good spirits and a soundtrack filled with oldies. But her screenplays are often up-to-the-minute in their topicality, filled with sharp, witty lines of dialogue. Ephron is the master of the light touch, capable of crafting warm, intimate comedies that ring with truth.

The three principles are working at the top of their game here, and the supporting cast is well-chosen too. Greg Kinnear, Jean Stapleton, Parker Posey, Steve Zahn and Dabney Coleman all play small but effective roles.

If You've Got Mail suffers from a problem, it's length. At almost two hours, the film feels padded at times. There are too many characters, too many little subplots that are introduced and go nowhere. Then again, maybe Ephron was just smart enough to know that all we really care about is Hanks and Ryan, and our desire to see them find each other in the end.

( out of four)

You've Got Mail is rated PG for language. The running time is 1 hour and 57 minutes.