Here we are in our last installment of "Tuesdays with Nora." I realize that it is actually two weeks late, but I didn't think anyone was waiting on the edge of their seat and, just like Joe Fox (F.O.X.) and Kathleen Kelly in You've Got Mail, we can take our time.
I saw this movie when it was released when I was in 8th grade. I remember liking it, but not really connecting to it until later on in my high school years. I thought this was because I was older and wiser, but let's face it- a relationship built on flirty online exchanges? When I was in high school I basically lived and died by the conversations I had on AIM (AOL Instant Messenger for you oldies or babies.) Although I actually knew these people in real life and didn't exchange witty, proud, stubborn remarks in a Mr. Darcy/Elizabeth Bennett situation.
These days, I love everything about You've Got Mail. Sadly this is the last movie Meg Ryan really looked cute in before she got her new face and I think this is the first (maybe only time) we got to see Tom Hanks as a really confident, but still very charming, rom-com leading man. In Splash or Sleepless in Seattle, Tom is precious but adorably nervous or bumbling. As Joe Fox he perfectly plays the second of half the movie so Kathleen is in love with him AND NY152.
Let's talk about Kathleen Kelly for a moment. I love that in this movie she not only falls in love, but loses her job, learns to speak her mind and stays classy and adorable the entire time. I want to have lunch with Sally Albright and work with Annie Reed but most of all I want to receive emails from Kathleen. She writes, "sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life - well, valuable, but small - and sometimes I wonder, do I do it because I like it, or because I haven't been brave?" Oh for heaven's sake, I've felt like that a million times. As with every great Nora movie I want to shout at the screen " Yes! I know what exactly you mean!"
This movie has one of my favorite endings of any romantic comedy, ever. When Joe walks up the path in Riverside Park and Somewhere Over the Rainbow is playing and Kathleen sees him but doesn't quite understand . . . until she does, and then she starts to cry. "Don't cry Shopgirl" says Joe. But I cry! Every damn time. In fact sometimes I'm all ready to go out and I realize You've Got Mail is on. And I have to wait to the end of the movie. And I have to completely redo my mascara. I can't help it. I love happy endings.
This is the only movie we've talked about that Nora co-wrote with her sister, Delia. And like any great collaboration I think its brings together some of the best parts of our previous Tuesdays. You've Got Mail is about a woman who learns to lead a different life but stay true to herself. Its about two people who hate each other but finally become friends and then, at the very end, fall in love. "So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around?" types Shopgirl to NY152. Well, so much of what I see reminds me of something I saw in a Nora Ephron movie. And I think that's wonderful on a Tuesday. . . or any day at all.
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