History Film / YouveGotMail

''You've Got Mail'' is a 1998 {{romantic comedy}} featuring Creator/TomHanks and Creator/MegRyan in their third and final screen pairing (after ''Film/JoeVersusTheVolcano'' and ''Film/SleeplessInSeattle''). It was directed by Creator/NoraEphron, who co-wrote the screenplay with her sister Delia. It's loosely based on Miklós Lászlo's theatrical play ''Parfumerie'' (which had previously been adapted into the 1940 film ''Film/TheShopAroundTheCorner'', the 1949 musical film ''Film/InTheGoodOldSummertime'', and the 1963 stage musical ''Theatre/SheLovesMe'').

* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: After hours of being stuck in an elevator, a group of people start talking about what they'll do when they get out. One person promises to call her mother more, another decides he'll ask his girlfriend to marry him. Patricia promises... [[ItsAllAboutMe she will get laser surgery for her eyes because she's tired of contact lenses]]. It's PlayedForDrama, as it makes clear to Joe how self-centered she is.

''You've Got Mail'' is a 1998 {{romantic comedy}} featuring Creator/TomHanks and Creator/MegRyan in their third and final screen pairing (after ''Film/JoeVersusTheVolcano'' and ''Film/SleeplessInSeattle''). It was directed by Creator/NoraEphron, who co-wrote the screenplay with her sister Delia. It's loosely based on Miklós Lászlo's theatrical play ''Parfumerie'' (which had previously been adapted into the 1940 film ''Film/TheShopAroundTheCorner'', the 1949 musical film ''In the Good Old Summertime'', and the 1963 stage musical ''Theatre/SheLovesMe'').

* TangledFamilyTree: Thanks to his father and grandfather taking up with and having children with younger women, 40-something Joe has an 11-year-old half-aunt and a 4-year-old half-brother, both of whom are mistaken for his children when he takes them out for the day.

Creator/DaveChappelle, still a couple of years away from ''Chappelle's Show'', plays Joe's friend Kevin.

* IsThatCuteKidYours: Kathleen has this reaction when introduced to Matt and Annabelle until Joe explains that Matt is his baby half-brother and Annabelle is his aunt.

* FictionalCounterpart: Fox Books is clearly a stand-in for Barnes & Noble or Borders, and the way it forces Kathleen's bookshop out of business is based on the real-life 1996 closure of a small Upper West Side bookstore, Shakespeare & Co., following the opening of a B&N branch in the same neighborhood.

* BittersweetEnding: Sadly, Kathleen's bookstore folds. But after a period of building a bridge between himself and Kathleen, Joe is able to bury the hatchet with her. There are mentions that she has a number of career prospects, which means she's likely to land on her feet, and she and Joe get together in the end.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/475900_1020_A_7318.jpg]]

The film was a box office hit; its total lifetime gross estimated to $250,821,495. With about $116 million earned in the United States alone, it was the 14th most financially successful film of its year.

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: Inverted, it's more like "Both sides are wrong". Joe is simply a entrepreneur and isn't doing anything illegal, but his ''pride'' in taking out competing book stores left and right is unethical. And while Kathleen has good intentions trying to save her mother's bookstore, she's ''prejudiced'' thinking Fox Books is just a greedy, impersonal corporation when in reality it's a decent book store that brings people together, and in fact goes on to hire one of Kathleen's co-workers in order to make their children's department more knowledgeable.

** When Kathleen sadly suspects Fox Books will put her shop out of business, she turns to her online pen pal (unknowingly turning to the very man who's threatening her business). In turn, Joe adds to the dramatic irony by offering his own competitor metaphorical teeth to [[TheDogBitesBack bite back with]] (in the form of "taking it to the mattresses").

* EvilIsPetty: In Kathleen's eyes. While Kathleen and Joe are having a tiff at a dinner party (shortly after Kathleen finds out he is the part of the Fox Books hierarchy), he nonchalantly scoops some caviar off a dessert plate onto his own. Kathleen is offended by that ("That caviar is a GARNISH!"), prompting Joe to look her in the eye and wordlessly put more caviar on his plate.

* GoodCapitalismEvilCapitalism: He's an executive for a large corporate bookstore, and she's the owner of an independent community bookstore. The conflict impedes the romance, at least for awhile.

* MeaningfulEcho: When Kathleen asks Joe's online persona how to deal with her online competitor, one of his advices is to remember that no matter what mean under-handed things she has to do to save her shop, she has to remember [[NothingPersonal it's not personal]], it's just business. Later, after Kathleen's shop is put out of business (despite her best efforts), Joe tries to apologize and brings up it wasn't personal. As though in response to her pen pal, Kathleen goes into a rant over how she thinks it's a tired and cliched excuse to say it "[[NothingPersonal wasn't personal]]" when something meaningful is taken from you. From where she stands, it would make her feel better if ''anything'' started with "being personal".

** When Kathleen believes she been stood up, George sees an article about the arrest of the rooftop killer and he and Christina believe that it could be him:

** Another, more subtle shout-out is the Kathleen's statement that she loves ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'', which also features the "enemies becoming a couple" plot. It's also the book that she brings to their disastrous "first" meeting.

* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: After her conversation with Joe in which he suggest to "go to the mattresses" (and explains it's from ''Film/TheGodfather''), Kathleen asks Frank to help her, who agrees even though he's only half-listening. When she tries to get his attention by asking if he knows what the phrase means, without missing a beat or looking up from his paper, he states, "From ''The Godfather''."
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Just because a man and a woman either knows the lead male or lead female of a comedy doesn't automatically mean they are going to somehow meet and/or start dating one another. Frank and Patricia hit it off nicely the instant they meet, but they never date or interact with each other beyond that.
** Kathleen is devastated when she learns that, for all the followers she got, her bookstore still isn't getting as much customers as Fox Books. Sometimes, David doesn't always beat Goliath, and the under dog doesn't always come out on top.
** At one point later in the story, Kathleen and Frank are each surprised that although they share much in common, they just don't click as a couple. Being alike and being compatible aren't always the same thing. She and him are even ''[[AmicableExes relieved]]'' when they come to terms that they're better off as friends than lovers.

* TalkingInBed: Averted. A scene in which Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are using their computers to chat was staged with them sitting on opposite sides of their beds, so that it could be shown in SplitScreen as if they were on the same bed. The filmmakers opted to show them in alternating takes.
* TangledFamilyTree: Thanks to his father and grandfather taking up with and having children with younger women, 40-something Joe has an 11-year old half-aunt and a 4 year old half-brother, both of whom are mistaken for his children when he takes them out for the day.

* WealthyYachtOwner: Not "yacht", per se, but Joe and his father are shown to own very nice boats big enough to serve as mini-apartments after they each breakup with their girlfriends.

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: After Kathleen's run-in with Joe at the coffee shop (and subsequent insult), between their encounter and her online friend's absence, she reflects to him [[JerkassRealization how her words were rather cruel]] and feels sorry for saying them because it didn't feel like herself. Before he read this post, Joe was convinced that Kathleen was a unpleasant woman [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk through and through]], and would've otherwise never spoken to her again. But seeing her apologetic words are what convince him to indirectly apologize to her, and inspires him to mend the rift between them.