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I went into this movie not expecting much. This much-ballyhood "sequel" to Sleepless in Seattle struck me as something that had already been done. Sure, the chemistry between Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan was dynamite in that movie. But here, was it going to be like that all over again? Or another "Joe and the Volcano?"
Well, I wasn't disappointed. Hanks and Ryan hit it off. Well, not really. See, they hate each other in "RL" (that's cool internet talk for "real life") because Hanks' big corporate *cough*Barnes and Noble*sneeze* bookstore giant named "Fox Books" is squeezing out all the charming, adorable mom-and-pop bookstores in town. And you'll never guess who owns the neighborhood's .... last....one?
There're no prior marriage's children in this movie (he has a dog that plays the adorable "gee, Tom must be ok to have a dog who's so lovable" adornment), well, except for the awkward kids who aren't really those of Hanks' character. Instead, these adorable dumplings are his aunt and great-uncle or something, since his elder male role models in his family have a problem holding women. This gets Joe (no, not from the Volcano) Fox (Hanks) thinking that he should try to woo the girl he just put out of business.
Of course, the real star in the movie is America Online. Well, not AOL in particular, but the whole wonderful phenomenon of being online, exchanging email, and meeting people (nevermind that we don't see AOL's endless ads, or see Hanks get spam for some XXX site). Is the person you're talking to a killer? A maniac? Married? How would you know? The majority of the attention, though, is on the way people meet online: the slow courtships, the "getting to know them from the inside-out," and the reassuring comfort felt when you discover you have mail.
It was clever how the Empire State Building was featured briefly in the opening, giving a nod to the key focal point of Sleepless. Also clever was the grand-daddy talking about old-time mail, "with postage, stamps and envelopes," pointing out something that not many of us use anymore except for our Visa bills. Some of the characters were a bit one-dimensional, with Fox's girlfriend being the cardboard cut-out "bitch on wheels" while the boyfriend played by Greg Kinnear being a nice guy you can't help seeing as the gay neighbor from "As Good as it Gets." The cute corner bookstore Ryan ran was too charming, too cute. New York City seems like the neighborhood from Sesame Street -- I kept expecting to see Mr. Hooper greet us with a song at any time. And did they have to show her in so many clingy tops (not that I'm complaining, but this is the second consecutive Kinnear movie in a row where the lead lady gets hard nipples... hmmmmmm).
All in all, this is a good date movie. Once you get past the improbability of two people bumping into one another almost daily in our country's largest city with millions of inhabitants, oh, and the unlikeliness of forgiving someone who ripped out the heart of your mother's dream and dancing on it while hitting on your homeless shell of a soul, it's actually a good date movie that has some nice on-screen chemistry. A 7.