You've Got Mail is a 1998 American romantic comedy film directed by Nora Ephron, and starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan alongside Parker Posey, Jean Stapleton, Dave Chappelle, Steve Zahn, and Greg Kinnear.
Inspired by the 1937 Hungarian play Parfumerie by Miklós László (which had earlier been adapted in 1940 as The Shop Around the Corner and in 1949 as In the Good Old Summertime),[3] the screenplay was co-written by Nora and Delia Ephron.
It marked the third pairing of Hanks and Ryan, who previously appeared together in Joe Versus the Volcano (1990) and Sleepless in Seattle (1993), the latter directed by Ephron.
On Manhattan's Upper West Side, Kathleen Kelly runs The Shop Around the Corner, an independent children's bookstore she inherited from her mother.
[a] 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.
Joe and Kathleen meet and have a pleasant conversation, but when she expresses disdain for the new Fox Books store, he withholds his last name and leaves abruptly with the children.
Frank pens a column in support of The Shop Around the Corner that draws widespread attention, leading to talk show appearances, news coverage, and picketing outside Fox Books.
Despite efforts to save The Shop Around the Corner, business steadily declines, while the newly opened Fox Books location thrives.
Meanwhile, after breaking up with Patricia, Joe realizes his own feelings for Kathleen and slowly builds a face-to-face relationship with her, still keeping his online identity a secret.
[6] Influences from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice can also be seen in the relationship between Joe Fox and Kathleen Kelly—a reference pointed out by these characters actually discussing Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet in the film.
The joke when Tom Hanks explains that the little girl is really his aunt is taken from Israel Zangwill's story "A New Matrimonial Relation" in The Bachelors' Club (1891).
"[9] Additionally, Ephron had Ryan and Burns rehearse and work at Books of Wonder, an independent New York City children's bookstore, for a week prior to filming in order to get them into character.
[2] The film debuted at number one at the North American box office above The Prince of Egypt, earning $18.4 million on its opening weekend.
"[25] Lael Loewenstein of Variety similarly called it a "winning romantic comedy" and praised the chemistry between Hanks and Ryan, writing, "they show why they are two of Hollywood's most bankable and, in many ways, most traditional stars.