Hearthly wrote:
Me and Mrs Hearthly watched YOU'VE GOT MAIL last night 'cause we fancied a bit of 90s cheese. (It's on Netflix.)
What we hadn't expected (misremembered?) was to be confronted by what an utter cunt Tom Hanks's character is in it, he literally puts Meg Ryan out of business (a very cute Meg Ryan, I should add), forces himself onto her in ways she explicitly says she doesn't want, uses knowledge he has about her to fuck her over, and taps her for information whilst she doesn't know who he really is to finally set himself up to make his move, and when what a total arsehole he's been is revealed to her at the end, she thinks it's the most romantic thing ever and she falls into his arms.
As the credits rolled I said to Mrs Hearthly, 'Crikey, that hasn't aged well, I'd have told him to bugger off'.
We both agreed it's a very old fashioned, rather misogynistic view of romance.
And it was made in 1998, so hardly a case of 'Oh well things were different in the 1940s'.
Sir, please, please watch 'Shop Around the Corner', which is the Margaret Sullivan and Jimmy Stewart movie You've Got Mail is based on. It's way better. It's based on a play by the same name and like the play is set in Budapest, not that you could tell by the accents. It's brilliantly witty - the dialogue is razor sharp - and all the supporting actors are memorable and completely on top of their game. Unlike You've Got Mail it's a warm film with likeable characters who put each other through the wringer a bit before ultimately falling for each other. There's an emotional plot that weaves throughout the film featuring the owner of the department store, who's wife is having an affair, the resolution of which made me dab at my eyes a little. Ooh, actually... let me find my original post as I recollect I have talked about this before...
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But one you might not have seen is, 'The Shop Around the Corner', which is a Margaret Sullivan and James Stewart vehicle directed by Ernst Lubitsch. It's one of those films that's clearly based on a play, and it's basically a will-they/won't-they romance as perky, driven and tactless Margaret Sullivan gets a job at a department store on the whim of the manager, and quickly builds an antagonistic working relationship with old hand James Stewart whose blunt advice offends his boss. (The boss played by the same dude who plays the Great and Powerful Oz, btw.) It all takes place in the run-up to Christmas as the sales staff desperately pray and hustle for a good, honest Christmas rush - otherwise they're all out on the street.
It's a film that much like It's a Wonderful Life is all whimsy and fun on the surface, but has a dark, fearful streak within. For all their mutual arrogance both leads are terrified at the prospect of losing their jobs in a wintry, depression hit Budapest, and the film takes a wry look at work-place politics and and winds up going some fairly dark places with the plot revolving around the manager. Ultimately however the film proves heart-warming, with the shop-keeping family rallying around, and it has one of the best comeuppance scenes in cinema history as a real crawling, devious sleeze who redefines the word 'unctuous' gets what's coming to him. (Helped by the sheer villainous relish the actor Joseph Schildkraut brings to the role.) It's a lovely black and white film and in its stagey manner really evokes the feeling of being someplace warm and cosy inside, a little island of light in a cold, dark winter. Very much recommended if you're bored of the same old rotation of Christmas films, and some great character actors doing their schtick. Even if it is impossible to buy the superb James Stewart as a Hungarian, who, mercifully, sticks solidly to his regular, 'Wa'aaall I wouldn't know about that' voice.
It's full of nice people doing nice things for other people to help them when they're down, which I always approve of and never happens enough in films too. Available on DVD, btw!
So yeah, if you want to wash the bad taste of You've Got Mail out of your mouth, definitely watch Shop Around the Corner. Nice people looking out for one another.