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You've Got Mail
Book superstore magnate Joe Fox and independent book shop owner Kathleen Kelly fall in love in the anonymity of the Internet—both blissfully unaware that he's trying to put her out of business.
1998 · Directed by Nora Ephron · 119 min · Comedy · Romance · Screenplay in the scene database · 19 frames
Tagline
Someone you pass on the street may already be the love of your life.
Plot
On Manhattan's Upper West Side, Kathleen Kelly runs The Shop Around the Corner, an independent children's bookstore she inherited from her mother. Her romantic partner is Frank Navasky, a left-leaning columnist for The New York Observer. While Frank is devoted to his typewriter, Kathleen prefers her laptop and using her AOL email account, under the screen name "Shopgirl", to exchange messages with "NY152", whom she first met in a chatroom. They agreed not to share specifics about their personal lives, though their exchanges are extensive and intimate with Kathleen confiding how much she misses her mother.
"NY152" is Joe Fox's screen name. Joe's family runs Fox Books, a major bookstore chain, and he is dating Patricia Eden, an abrasive publisher. Joe is overseeing the opening of a new storefront, just a few blocks from The Shop Around the Corner. Kathleen's three shop assistants—George, Birdie, and Christina—worry the new Fox Books will hurt business, but Kathleen dismisses their concerns.
While on an outing with his 11-year-old aunt Annabel and 4-year-old half-brother Matthew, Joe takes them to Kathleen's store for a storytime event. He and Kathleen meet, but when she expresses disdain for the new Fox Books store, he withholds his last name. Later that week, Kathleen learns Joe's true identity when they meet again at a book publishing party. She accuses Joe of deception and spying, while he belittles her store, earning each other's hostility.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Delia Ephron, Nora Ephron
- Cinematography: John Lindley
- Edited by: Richard Marks
- Music: George Fenton
- Production design: Dan Davis
- Produced by: Lauren Shuler Donner, Nora Ephron
Cast
- Meg Ryan as Kathleen Kelly
- Tom Hanks as Joe Fox
- Greg Kinnear as Frank Navasky
- Parker Posey as Patricia Eden
- Heather Burns as Christina Plutzker
- Dave Chappelle as Kevin Jackson
- Jean Stapleton as Birdie Conrad
- Steve Zahn as George Pappas
- Dabney Coleman as Nelson Fox
- John Randolph as Schulyer Fox
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Warner Bros. Pictures, The Donners' Company
- Budget: $65,000,000
- Box office: $250,800,000
- Themes: bookshop, businessman, anonymous letter, romcom, falling in love, manhattan, new york city, class conflict, online dating, woman director, christmas
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