Common Sense Media Review
By S. Jhoanna Robledo
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Predictable-but-sweet romantic comedy.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 10+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
You've Got Mail
Parent and Kid Reviews
Based on 15 parent reviews
Parents say this movie has mixed reviews regarding its suitability for children, with many highlighting the inappropriate language and morally ambiguous relationships that could send the wrong message to young audiences. While some viewers appreciate the on-screen chemistry between the leads and find the film charming and heartwarming, others feel it romanticizes infidelity and presents negative role models, making it less appropriate for kids and teens.
- inappropriate language
- moral dilemmas
- charming chemistry
- romanticizes infidelity
- not for kids
Summarized with AI
Summarized with AI
Based on 22 kid reviews
What's the Story?
Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) is set to open a big-box bookstore on the Upper West Side, a neighborhood that's fiercely protective of its small shops. (At least it was when the movie was filmed.) Little does he know that the woman he's been chatting with online, unbeknownst to his frantic, editor girlfriend (Parker Posey), is Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan), the proprietor of a small children's bookstore that will likely be decimated once his mega-store opens its doors. Can love trump commerce?
Is It Any Good?
There's a reason YOU'VE GOT MAIL has become a romcom classic: It is knit together like a perfectly cabled sweater, with a nary a stitch dropped. The pacing is perfect, the characters likeable, the dialogue breezy. Some observations, including one about the overly complicated choices at chain coffee stores -- Starbucks, specifically -- still hold true. (It was filmed in the 1990s.) The arguments for the ability of small, independent stores to survive against super-stores are hopeful -- but also a sad, really, given how many have foundered in real life.
Nostalgia is one of the charms of You've Got Mail, and the old-fashioned courtship at the heart of it, despite being conducted online, is the most charming of all and references romances-by-letter of times past. Hanks and Ryan have heaps of chemistry, and though the fact that they fall in love given the circumstances seems highly unlikely — the plot's a little far-fetched, but what romcom doesn't have an implausible one? — we buy it because, well, why not?
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the central argument of the film: Are big-box stores to blame for the decline of independent stores?
Is Joe's and Kathleen's relationship believable? Does it matter if it's not? Do relationships that begin online face challenges that other relationships don't? Also, talk to your children about instant messaging and other ways to communicate online.
Movie Details
- In theaters : December 18, 1998
- On DVD or streaming : May 4, 1999
- Cast : Greg Kinnear , Meg Ryan , Parker Posey , Tom Hanks
- Director : Nora Ephron
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Warner Bros.
- Genre : Romance
- Run time : 119 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- MPAA explanation : some language
- Last updated : October 9, 2025
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