![]() Yes, you can theorize that, in the real world, Sleepless’s Sam and Kathleen may well likely find after they hang out for a while that they actually have nothing in common. ![]() But You’ve Got Mail, in its urge to have Kathleen and Tom Hanks’s Joe Fox adorably bicker and banter before realizing their true feelings, actually makes Joe a real bastard. And yet you do not find it creepy that a guy discovers that the heretofore unseen dream date with whom he has been chatting online is in reality the woman he just gleefully put out of business, and he reacts by promptly starting to act like a dick to her, rubbing in her face the fact that her idealized man has stood her up - all while knowing full well that he himself is the one who has stood her up? That doesn’t seem the least bit sadistic to you? Sleepless is unrealistic, sure, but its theory that Annie and Tom Hanks’s Sam are destined to be together is meant to be pure fantasy: They never speak, but when they meet, they just know it’s right. So let me get this straight: You find it creepy that a woman (one engaged to a sniffly milquetoast) would fall in love with a sensitive, lonely widower that she hears on the radio. I feel like you need to start working up a callus to that epiphany now, because it sounds like it is going to be painful.Īnyway, back to the debate at hand. Josh: First things first: You are going to have to brace yourself for a harsh wake-up call when you or your friends start having kids and they sit raptly during the Star Wars prequels and find the old ones kinda slow. Also, having a ton in common with someone’s deceased partner just seems like a recipe for disaster to me. ![]() The big romantic moment at the end involves 8-year-old Jonah proudly telling a taxi driver, “I’m going to meet my new mom!” Yiiiiiiiikes. Finally, I find Sleepless to be a bit creepy, honestly. Kathleen runs a children’s book store! She actually believes in that twinkly light stuff! But Annie has strong opinions about china settings because she is secretly horrible. Second, in terms of Meg Ryan cutesiness, I prefer Kathleen’s version ( YGM) to Annie’s version ( SIS). First, the romantic leads actually interact with each other for most of the movie. (And for it to also be secretly about me: University of Chicago grad who writes for New York Magazine? That is me! I am the only one right now! I order salad like a normal person, though.)īut anyway: You’ve Got Mail is a vastly superior movie for a number of reasons. Second, I of course consider When Harry Met Sally to be the ultimate, perfect rom-com. Margaret: First, no children prefer the prequels. Sleepless in Seattle - while not a timeless classic - still holds up as a frothy, heartwarming delight, while, if I were Gene Shalit (and oh God, why can’t I be?), I would say, “ You’ve Got Mail? More like Return to Sender!” (RIP Saturday U.S. But guess what: I watched it and Sleepless again this week, and my case stands. When I revealed that I was actually on a bad date for that screening, you and your Mailies accused me of being tainted. What kind of madness is this? I distinctly remember attending a media screening of the movie in 1998 (in the very same Lincoln Square theater in which Meg Ryan and Greg Kinnear fight in the movie) and finding it an interminable cutesy-thon (complete with Meg Ryan bippity-boppity-booing around in pajamas like she was starring in a body-switching movie with an Olsen twin) that made no logical sense. And I had an up-is-down-down-is-up reaction that lasts to this day. When I said it was simply an unsuccessful reunion that existed only to milk residual good feelings to the cast (the Fierce Creatures to Sleepless in Seattle’s A Fish Called Wanda), all women - nearly to a one! - winced and declared that Sleepless in Seattle was actually not very good. Josh: A couple of years ago, when Mindy Kaling declared You’ve Got Mail the ultimate rom-com, I assumed it was just a personal, wrongheaded quirk - like children who prefer the Star Wars prequels over the original trilogy - but then in our staff meeting, a bunch of you began citing the movie yourselves as the ne plus ultra of romantic comedies. Which is better? Which is truer? And do children really like the new Star Wars movies? ![]() Here, on Valentine’s Day, Wolk and Margaret Lyons pit Ephron against Ephron in an exploration of the Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan romance staples You’ve Got Mail and Sleepless in Seattle. Horrified, staffers begged him to explain this insane position, and they later discovered that he prefers Sleepless in Seattle. A few months ago, Vulture staffers discovered a terrifying truth about their noble leader: Josh Wolk does not like You’ve Got Mail.
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