You've Got Mail

January 04, 2016

Hello, people!

I already failed my purpose of writing every day, but here I am. Last night I watched "You've Got Mail", a film from 1998 with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. I already watched it a few years ago, but yesterday I looked at it with different eyes. When you get old you look at things in a different way.

It's quite amusing to watch a romantic comedy about two people that never met having a sort of relationship online in 1998. Even better when they talk about virtual sex and stuff like that. It's fun how the film shows how the computer worked at that time, making that weird noise every time they connected to the web. Or when Meg Ryan explains her frustration in waiting for the computer to connects to see her emails.

"You've Got Mail" was released 17 years ago, but it is extremely ongoing.

They are two people that apparently never met but know a lot about each other, insomuch to fall in love. But at the same time, they know so little about each other in real life that led them to mutual hate.

This sums up most relationships of our century. The anonymity of the internet gives us the opportunity to reveal ourselves as we truly are, without the fear of being judged. In fact, it is possible to love a person that we never met as much as it's possible to hate them in real life. In my opinion, this is a beautiful side of the human nature to study in deep.

Another interesting and modern thing is a quote that Tom Hanks' character wrote in one of the emails to Meg Ryan. He says:

"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. Short, tall, light, dark, caf, decaf, low-fat, non-fat, etc. So people who don't know what the hell they're doing or who on earth they are can, for only $2.95, get not just a cup of coffee but an absolutely defining sense of self: Tall. Decaf. Cappuccino."

I guess there's no need for me to explain that. Everyone who has been to Starbucks at least once in their lives knows how true this statement is.

After these considerations, I suggest that you watch it. It is a bit mawkish (especially towards the end) but it is a really good romantic comedy (I love Meg Ryan!).