THE PLOT THUS FAR
Two business rivals hate each other at the office but fall in love over the internet.
WHAT WE THOUGHT
In this valentine to modern romance, book superstore magnate Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) and independent book shop owner Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) fall in love in the anonymity of the Internet — both blissfully unaware that he’s trying to put her out of business. Director Nora Ephron’s Golden Globe-nominated romantic comedy puts romance on the ropes — and forces two people to make tough decisions about life, love and livelihood.
Joe is not a remorseless businessman at heart ever, he feels remorse at when he zings an enemy (he explains that early on while emailing Shopgirl, and Shopgirl on the other hand desires to aquire some of that zing that Joe has since she is so wholesome that she cant come up with zingers all that quickly). His motto of “its not personal, its business” is his way of reassuring himself and ignoring his concience. The only time he is ever really mean to Kathleen is the scene early on at the little convention. Well before he knew Shopgirl was Kathleen. And after that is when confides to Shopgirl the remorse he feels over those comments and that side of his personality in general (mentioned in parentheses above). A few people were creeped out by Tom Hanks actions, and there was no reason to be. One guy even compared it to stalking, which is sooooo way off I wont dignify it with a response, except that he definatly paid no attnetion.
NY152 technically never stood her up, and Kathleen figures that out at the end. The writers had two options when they meet in the cafe the first time, He could have come clean there or shortly thereafter or they could go the direction they did. I’m sure the writers considered the other option. But it would make things very muddled. Kathleen would have a very difficult choice, with the personality “NY152″ she adores so much belonging the seemingly cold and heartless Joe Fox would very easily be enough for her to give up on “NY152″ altogether and move on. And what kind of movie would that make? I can understand why Joe withheld that info in the cafe, He was coming to terms with all of this himself, the persona he adores online being the same person he is putting out of business. His business just became very personal. And she has no idea. From the moment Joe finds out “Shopgirl” is Kathleen he contemplates giving up on the whole thing. But he goes in and talks to her as Joe Fox.
The Blu-Ray comes with a Blu-Ray copy of the film, plus a bonus DVD copy of “The Shop Around the Corner”. I love that inclusion so much and I wish that Warner Brothers would consider it for future releases. It’s a neat way to get young film fans into older flicks by showing them that movies existed before 1990. There’s a ton of featurettes, music video and a commentary ported over from the Special Edition DVD. The A/V Quality is sharp as hell and it sports a flawless transfer. I’d recommend a purchase for all romantic comedy fans.
RELEASE DATE: 02/01/2011
