Two business rivals who despise each other in real life unwittingly fall in love over the Internet.
Director: Nora Ephron
Stars: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Greg Kinnear, Jean Stapleton.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0128853/
disc just arrived
Completing the MR trifecta of When Harry Met Sally ('89) and Sleepless in Seattle ('93); more info in these notes. Sleepless was my favorite of the 3 from these recent viewings, and this is second.
Remake of The Shop Around the Corner (1940, dir. Lubitsch), In the Good Old Summertime (1949, dir. Leonard) and She Loves Me (1978) (TV Movie of a London stage musical).
But instead of unknowingly working in the same place (they correspond by email instead of letter), they work at rival companies: she owns a children's bookstore, he owns a megastore about to open Around the Corner from her store.
We are just early enough that Amazon is not yet a presence. (I remember my first order from Amazon was '98, and, looking it up, was a book and a cd.) On the c.track, they do mention the war of the bookstores, that a small store had been consumed by a larger store, which was subsequently consumed by a chain store. (We skip the middle step in the film.) So my point is that they're not ready to complete the cycle with the online store consuming the chain (remember Waldenbooks/Brentano's/Borders? Wow, Borders folded in '11; doesn't feel that long ago.)
The access to the internet still has squawky dial-up sound, without seeing a modem. They're typing on laptops, but no fancy graphics onscreen.
N.Ephron co-wrote with sister Delia (who also co-wrote '93's Sleepless), with origin credit to the Hungarian playwright source of all these other films/plays.
By getting the extra storyline of the bookstore wars, we get a much richer film than the original, where the characters just irritate each other at work. Of course, there I don't like the female lead (Margaret Sullavan) despite the appeal of Jimmy Stewart, and appreciating Lubitsch.
My rating scheme is weird (as I've said before). I needed to give this a higher rating than Harry...Sally (7), but don't feel the affection to give it a plus. So 8- feels better.
Rated 6.6 (173,298)
Warner, dir. Ephron; 8-
