You've Got Mail

Variety Lael Lowenstein

The most successful version yet of this familiar premise.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Warm, smart, and funny!

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

The film's mix of romance and reading matter is seductive in its own right, providing comfy book-lined settings and people who are what they read and write.

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

A valentine to the happenstance miracle of lovers and other strangers, a movie that regards modern romance as something that is, ultimately, old-fashioned to its core.

Entertainment Weekly Ty Burr

A perfectly enjoyable star vehicle that does exactly what it sets out to do. [7 May 1999, p.66]

ReelViews James Berardinelli

A feel-good movie that offers enough comedy and romance to warm the heart without risking a sentimental overdose.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Boasts a collection of oddball characters, some more sharply written than others.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The appeal of You've Got Mail is as old as love and as new as the Web.

Newsweek David Ansen

Ultimately achieves that lump in the throat that is the romantic comedy's promised land.

Slate David Edelstein

The movie, without seeming to realize it, turns into a romantic parable about the joys of being absorbed by a conglomerate.

Time Ginia Bellafante

Ephron refreshingly stands out as the nation's foremost advocate of mind-meld. [21 Dec 1998, p. 74]

San Francisco Examiner Jane Ganahl

Too many questions are raised with no good answers.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

This is filmmaking as a minor feat of engineering, the kind where even the gossamer emotions seem like prefab components -- charm, whimsy, serendipity, all so many discs plugged into the hard drive.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Hanks and Ryan are as appealing as ever, and Ephron's fashion-conscious camera gives the action a slickly attractive sheen.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

The coincidences that make the destined lovers' paths cross aren't contrived with much finesse, but the characters get in some decidedly clever lines.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

In a film about the ruthless corporate destruction of small businesses, it's hard not to flinch at the prominent placement accorded IBM, Starbucks and AOL logos.

Salon.com Laura Miller

It's as if the whole movie's on Prozac, only in this case the antidepressants are cuteness and romance.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Made me feel like a Christmas goose being fattened for slaughter. Its force-fed diet of whimsy cloyed long before the eagerly anticipated romantic payoff arrived to put me out of my misery.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Takes almost two self-infatuated, smarmy, condescending, cringe-inducingly sentimental hours to reach its pre-ordained conclusion.