Meg Ryan is the rom-com queen of the 1990s, and You've Got Mail (1998). The characters of Sally and Kathleen have some similarities, but their love stories are pretty different.
You've Got Mail is famous for its internet romance, a then-modern update of the film The Shop Around the Corner (1940). When Harry Met Sally is loved for its "will they or won't they" tension and compelling transition from friendship to happily ever after. Which movie is Meg Ryan's coziest Nora Ephron rom-com?
You've Got Mail: Falling In Love Online
To almost anyone who lived through the 1990s with a computer, You've Got Mail is an obvious reference to AOL (America Online). This now-vintage internet service was the premier stop for email, chatrooms, and instant messaging in the olden days.
Meg Ryan's and Tom Hanks' characters each log on and wait for the dial-up internet to connect. In The Shop Around the Corner, the main characters are unwittingly each other's pen pals. Making Kathleen and Joe online chat buddies is such a fun way for a late-90s romance to portray a budding relationship.
When Harry Met Sally: Falling In Love In Person
As relevant as online romances are, they weren't yet available in the 1980s. Therefore, Harry and Sally fall in love strictly in person and by phone. They live close enough to spend lots of time together throughout the week, and they enjoy creative conversations with friends at social gatherings.
It is refreshing to watch a romantic comedy where no one even has a cell phone yet. Even VHS tapes were fairly new at the time. The human interaction is priceless.
You've Got Mail: Reasonably Short Timespan
You've Got Mail takes place over many months and occasions, but it feels relatively quick in of an honest-to-goodness romance.
Joe and Kathleen spend a lot of the movie completely ignorant of the fact that they are online companions. Kathleen runs a small bookstore, and she eventually knows Joe as the man who is trying to put her out of business with his family's big-box corporation. The pacing of the film heightens its unfolding of events in a meaningful way.
When Harry Met Sally: Long Strolls & Hard-Won Love
Harry Burns and Sally Albright might not yet be internet savvy, like Joe Fox and Kathleen Kelly, but their slower pace in the romance department is equally captivating. They first meet because they agree to carpool together from Chicago (where they've just finished college) to New York City. They don't meet again until they bump into one another at the airport five years later and are on the same flight.
Five more years and the acquaintances cross paths at a bookstore, finally leading to their friendship and eventual romantic relationship. All these milestones make the movie what it is, and most fans think it's perfect.
You've Got Mail: Magic Of Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are known not only for You've Got Mail, but also for several other works, most notably Sleepless in Seattle (1993). It's easy to watch this dynamic duo fall in love because they have such powerful onscreen chemistry. They complete each other in You've Got Mail in a way that makes longtime fans watch the film again and again.
When Harry Met Sally: Charm Of Billy Crystal
While Tom Hanks is an obvious choice for a Meg Ryan movie, Billy Crystal gives him a run for his money in When Harry Met Sally. As Harry Burns, Crystal is warm, thoughtful, jovial, and perfectly compatible with Ryan's Sally Albright. His smile is infectious, and his quick energy is balanced by his genuinely sensitive nature.
You've Got Mail: Bad For Business
You've Got Mail gives one of what happens when business competitors become friends. Joe conveniently pops up around Kathleen all the time, and she can't deny that they have great conversations.
It's a wonder that she doesn't put two and two together sooner to discover Joe's online identity. He purposefully keeps it a secret and manages to find love out of his deceitfulness, but the book business certainly complicates all this, as it is Joe's excuse for not coming clean sooner.
When Harry Met Sally: No Work Complications
Harry and Sally are both big career people, but they're not competitors, colleagues, or associates of any kind. Their relationship thrives on dinners and phone calls and after-work hangouts.
It's interesting to watch two young professionals who put work away and make time for a social life. This could partly be attributed to the story taking place in an era with less technology, but it's more compelling to think that Sally and Harry are just that sincere in their long road of a relationship.
You've Got Mail: Love Of Literature
Despite their huge differences in business practices, Kathleen and Joe are both ionate about a good story. Books are a vital part of You've Got Mail. Kathleen knows everything there is to know about beloved children's book authors and even gets Joe (via their emails) to read a classic like Pride and Prejudice.
Even though Fox Books shuts down The Shop Around the Corner, the magic of books is a beautiful thread running through the entire movie.
When Harry Met Sally: Forever Having Fun
From their gatherings with friends to their in-depth talks, Harry and Sally never fail to have fun together (unless they're in a fight). The friends and eventual lovers are seen singing, dancing, and even watching classic films like Casablanca from their apartments as they discuss the movies over the phone. Thank goodness Harry met Sally.
