The Electronic Postman Always Clicks Twice

How things have changed, romance-wise. In the old Bert Kalmar-Harry Ruby song “Three Little Words,” the phrase that romantics have always died to hear was “I love you.” Now, in Nora Ephron’s fitfully amusing remake of “The Shop Around the Corner,” it’s: “You’ve Got Mail.”

Right. “You’ve got mail!,” the phony-excited greeting delivered by the disembodied voice of the AOL.com man, who informs subscribers, upon logging in, that they have messages. Usually, that means there are stacks of electronic junk mail awaiting deletion, along with the occasional request for Keanu Reeves’ birth sign and cousin Gert’s boring Christmas letter.

But for some romantic adventurers--that is, for people desperate enough to strike up titillating relationships in shared-interest chat rooms--the phrase “You’ve got mail” is a daily rush of adrenaline, a promise of things that may safely never come.

It is in this state of electronic excitation that we find Ephron’s fated lovers, Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) and Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan), a pair of thirtysomething Upper West Siders who pass each other in their daily routines without knowing they are e-mail soulmates. What they do know of each other, they hate.

Kathleen runs a second-generation children’s bookstore, and Joe is heir to the discount bookstore chain that is about to run her out of business. Her store is named the Shop Around the Corner, in tribute to the Ernst Lubitsch movie that is the source material for “You’ve Got Mail.” In that 1940 film, which was itself adapted from a play, James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan play feuding co-workers in an accessories shop who comfort themselves with thoughts of meeting their pen pal lovers, not knowing how close they really are.

Ephron, adapting the script with her sister Delia, has given this amiable premise a definite ‘90s spin. The e-mail device works. You can believe Kathleen when, under her log-on ID Shopgirl, she tells Joe’s NY152 that the “you’ve got mail” greeting makes her heart jump. And you can feel their anxiety, as their anonymous relationship warms up to the point where they think they should meet.

Also, the fact that Joe is living with another woman, a narrowly self-focused book editor (Parker Posey), and Kathleen with another man, a residual Marxist columnist (Greg Kinnear, in a very subdued performance) for the New York Observer, gives their relationship a funky-sneaky complicity that’s very funny. They can’t wait to be alone so they can go online and cheat with some faceless, nameless hunk-babe in the great beyond.

In obvious ways, of course, “You’ve Got Mail” attempts to recapture the magic of Ephron’s “Sleepless in Seattle,” which co-starred Hanks and Ryan as romantics from opposite coasts being matched over a radio talk show by the man’s young son. Seasoned with healthy scoops of wry commentary and molasses-thick sentiment, “Sleepless” amounted to a feature-length tease, in which the audience had to wait to the very end for the lovers to meet and then settle for some tentative hand-holding.

“You’ve Got Mail” plays the same waiting game. In fact, one wonders, as the film bores deep into its second, passionless hour, if two so carefully matched stars have ever gone longer without putting their lips together.

In this case, Hanks’ and Ryan’s characters at least meet, and interact, though it isn’t pretty. As NY152, Joe brings out the best in Kathleen. As the bogeyman of the discount book world, he brings out her worst. And where she, as Shopgirl, brings his e-mail alter ego down to earth, Kathleen’s face-to-face confrontations with Joe turn his businessman’s heart to stone.

There’s no denying the chemistry between Hanks, whose comparisons to Jimmy Stewart are becoming annoyingly accurate, and Ryan, whose schoolgirl cuteness is finally taking on a layer of matured confidence. We can see them together, want them to be together, and know we’ll get our wish. It’s a matter of getting there (and we might also wish that the writing were a little stronger along the way).

Nora Ephron has never really outgrown her columnist’s instincts; she tends to write entire scenes that are riffs on fads and lifestyle trends. She is very good at this--witness, a scene in which she mocks the bogus sophistication of Starbucks’ habitues----but they don’t always propel the story forward. And with something as slight as “You’ve Got Mail,” the seams and gaps are all the more apparent.

* MPAA rating: PG for some language. Times guideline: Adult relationships are discussed.

‘You’ve Got Mail’

Tom Hanks: Joe Fox

Meg Ryan: Kathleen Kelly

Parker Posey: Patricia Eden

Jean Stapleton: Birdie

Steve Zahn: George Pappas

David Chappelle: Kevin Scanlon

Greg Kinnear: Frank Navasky

Warner Bros. presents a Lauren Shuler Donner production, a Nora Ephron film. Directed by Nora Ephron. Produced by Lauren Shuler Donner and Nora Ephron. Screenplay by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron. Executive producers Delia Ephron, Julie Durk and G. Mac Brown. Director of photography John Lindley. Production designer Dan Davis. Editor Richard Marks. Music George Fenton. Running time: 1 hour, 59 minutes.

Playing in general release around Southern California.