“Nora Ephron to make an inviting love story that entangles a man, a woman, a couple of computers and a New York neighborhood so picturesquely idealized that it feels like Paris. Even if you already live on the Upper West Side, you might feel the urge to move there before the film is over. As far as You've Got Mail is concerned, the most important landmarks are intimate little hangouts and good old-fashioned books.
Being firmly on the side of the angels, this film treasures the written word so proudly that the closing credits thank a long list of publishing houses. 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. When they fall in love, they do it wistfully, as if not quite believing that real life can measure up to really good fiction.
The screenplay by Ms. Ephron and her sister, Delia Ephron, adapts The Shop Around the Corner, to the email age with gratifying ingenuity and with its share of extra observations about how times have changed.”