50 Stories::152 Things I Love About ‘You’ve Got Mail’

This blog post about my favorite movie took me about thirty minutes to write and I think I smiled the entire time. Because that’s what blogging has often looked like for me – writing about things I love. Sharing things that make me happy.

There are so many great lines from ‘You’ve Got Mail’, but with regards to blogging, this observation from Meg Ryan’s character, Kathleen, really stood out to me…

The odd thing about this form of communication is that you’re more likely to talk about nothing than something. But I just want to say that all this nothing has meant more to me than so many somethings.

My sentiments exactly.

---

Here is a list of productive things I could have done yesterday afternoon.

1. Fold clothes
2. Bleach my mustache
3. Clean the litter box
4. Straighten my craft cabinet
5. Work on scrapbooks

Instead, I chose to lie (yes, this is the correct verb…I looked it up) on the bed (totally different in my mind that lying in the bed of course) and watch You’ve Got Mail with my delightful daughter. It was one of the rare times that E! wasn’t showing Sex and the City (the movie) on its regular ‘Movies we Love’ time slot or Sex and the City (the series) the other 80 percent of the time. Perhaps E! should be called the SJP network. Just sayin.

Anyway… I’m not actually going to list 152 reasons why I love this movie, but I will tell you that it’s in my top ten favorite movies of all time. And I might also add that it makes my top ten list of movies that I will almost always watch if they are on TV. Which in case you’re wondering are two completely different lists. And which is probably a whole ‘nother blog post of its own. But I’ll save that for a day when I have other important things to not-do like pluck my eyebrows or unload the dishwasher.

(image courtesy wikipedia)

OK. So back to the movie. First things first, how cute is Meg Ryan’s hair in this movie! Now that I think about it, cute hair seems to be a key element in many of my favorite TV shows/movies (past and present). The following immediately come to mind:

• Connie Britton (Nashville)
• Sarah Jessica Parker (Sex and the City)
• Jennifer Anniston (Friends)
• Tea Leoni (The Family Man)

Sidenote #1: My inability to focus the actual subject of this blog post is just one example of how scatterbrained I am lately. And yes, that’s probably a blog post for another time too.

I’ve probably seen You’ve Got Mail at least 147 times since it came out in 1998. It’s the story of how “two business rivals hate each other at the office but fall in love over the internet” (IMDb) And I think we can all agree that Nora Ephron (1941-2012) had a knack for this type of movie – smart, witty, cute without being overly nauseating, great settings, and a way of really getting to the heart of things. She and her particular brand of romantic comedy will be missed. Especially by me.

Sidenote #2:  Can we just take a minute to talk about how great IMDb is?  (short for Internet Movie Database)  Perfect for when you’re either A) looking to fill in some details for your blog post or B) driving yourself crazy trying to remember in what movie you’ve seen a particular actor.  See sidenote #1.

One of the things I noticed as I watched it yesterday was a strange sense of nostalgia for things that it is hard to believe feel long ago enough to be nostalgic about. (huh??? I know…I tried a zillion different ways of putting that but they all made about as much sense as that sentence.) And yet in this age of instant communication, texting, iEverything, smartphones that are smarter than I am, Facebook, Instagram, etc., the thought of having to wait for AOL to dial-up and connect seems positively archaic. So I have to confess that I got a little misty upon hearing that oh so familiar dial-up tone and those three ‘very powerful words.’

So speaking of movie quotes (how’s that for a segue??), You’ve Got Mail has some real gems. Here are a few of my faves.

[George] Well, as far as I’m concerned, the Internet is just another way of being rejected by women.

[Kathleen] When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does.

[Joe] Mr. 152 Felony indictments. [Kathleen] Mr. 152 insights into my soul. [Joe] Oh yeah. No competing with that.

[Nelson Fox] I just have to meet someone new, that’s all. That’s the easy part. [Joe] Oh right, yeah, a snap to find the one single person in the world who fills your heart with joy.

[Birdie] You are daring to imagine that you could have a different life.

[Joe] The whole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee.

[Kathleen] Don’t you think daisies are the friendliest flower?

[Joe] Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.

And there are a few more that in particular spoke to me anew yesterday. First:

[Kathleen] People are always telling you that change is a good thing. But all they’re really saying is that something you didn’t want to happen at all… has happened. My store is closing this week. I own a store, did I ever tell you that? It’s a lovely store, and in a week it will be something really depressing, like a Baby Gap. Soon, it’ll just be a memory. In fact, someone, some foolish person, will probably think it’s a tribute to this city, the way it keeps changing on you, the way you can never count on it, or something. I know because that’s the sort of thing I’m always saying. But the truth is… I’m heartbroken. I feel as if a part of me has died, and my mother has died all over again, and no one can ever make it right.

This movie, I would say, is first and foremost a love story. But for obvious reasons, yesterday I really connected with Kathleen and this theme of change and evolution. How what sometimes seems like the end of the world as you know can be the beginning of something really wonderful. The only thing that would have driven this point home more (in my humble opinion) is if Kathleen had completely broken down into an ugly cry when she dropped her daughter off at a college, er I mean closed the door on her shop that last time.

Ahem.

And then there is this:

[Kathleen] 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? So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn’t it be the other way around? I don’t really want an answer. I just want to send this cosmic question out into the void

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that if they had existed, Kathleen Kelley would have been a blogger. And I would have followed her.

Sidenote #3:  Although the stars of this movie are Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, I would also like to take a moment to say what a huge fan of Greg Kinnear I am.  I’ve had a bit of a crush on him ever since he took over for Steve Kmetko as the host of Talk Soup a million years ago.  I have no idea where that came from – how I can remember stuff like that but never seem to be able to remember where I lay my car keys.  But oh hey…it was on E!  Aaaaaannnnnnddddddd it’s all starting to make sense now.

Dontcha just love when things come full circle like that??

So with that little gem, I think I’ll wrap up this blog post by sharing an observation about blogging in the words of my wise friend Kathleen-

The odd thing about this form of communication is that you’re more likely to talk about nothing than something. But I just want to say that all this nothing has meant more to me than so many somethings.

Thank you for giving me a place to talk about nothing. Love, Kelly

SaveSave

SaveSave