Why You've Got Mail is the Best Movie Ever
If you know me, you know You've Got Mail is my all time favorite movie. I first watched it when I was younger, I think my mom found You've Got Mail and Sleepless in Seattle at the store and decided a cultural immersion in the films of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan was important. Thank goodness she did.
I think I grew to love this movie more and more over the years. Initially, it drew me in because Kathleen Kelly owns a children bookstore, The Shop Around the Corner. I was that kid when I was younger who would ask to go to Barnes and Nobles for fun to get new beautiful books. Kathleen Kelly creates a place for children in New York to come and be captivated by stories, a place where they are the books they are reading are know by Kathleen.
Another reason You've Got Mail is my favorite is the setting. It is set in New York (I love cities) an begins in the fall. One of the first quotes from Tom Hanks' character, Joe Fox, is, "Don't you just love New York in the fall? It makes me what to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharped pencils if I knew your name and address." Being the nerd that I am, I love school and would love to receive a bouquet of pencils. The shots of New York in the fall are beautiful, the leaves on the ground, a line of people in jackets in Starbucks, for some reason fall is magical to me. I love being able to visibly watch the change in the seasons through the changing of trees.
The plot and setting for You've Got Mail is not too complex, not far out of reach of reality. It is so simple and for this reason so relatable. Kathleen says at one point, "I just want to say all this nothing has meant more to me than so many somethings." Beautiful. It's so easy to forget how simple conversation and someone just listening can build a friendship, maybe even more so than a friendship built on activities and the go go go pace of life. I count my greatest friends to be the ones who I can comfortably sit in silence with, or sit in a coffee shop and read with, or who I can spend a day with doing simple things like grocery shopping and cooking but still find their company comforting and restorative.
It may seem silly to write a whole blog post about You've Got Mail. But I've been thinking about this movie quite a bit lately. I think it is because I am in a Children's Literature course. We are discussing the power of stories in children's lives. Books changed my life, I read probably more than any other activity growing up. I still love to read children's lit and young adult lit. I grab on to children's lit because in the words of CS Lewis, "You can make anything by writing." Children's books create these amazingly realistic and captivating worlds and characters I haven't been able to find in adult literature. These worlds we can enter into and join with the heroes, cheering them on, battling everything from homework to Death Eaters.
Kathleen says to Joe in the movie, "When you read a book as a child it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does." Think about it. What was the book you read as a child, or read over and over again? It's probably secretly still one of your all time favorites.
Take a moment and watch You've Got Mail, there are many more beautiful elements I didn't discuss, like the hilarious dynamic between Kathleen and Joe. Maybe take another moment and pick up a children's book or young adult book and dare to remember the power of a child's imagination. We can still use our imaginations like we did as a child. Books can teach us how to dream again.
