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Sleepless in Seattle
Feb. 6th, 2018 10:15 amI survived Sleepless in Seattle! And actually enjoyed it much more than I expected, possibly because I went in with rock bottom expectations because I haaaaaaaaaated You’ve Got Mail so much that I have never warmed to Tom Hanks even though he’s apparently supposed to be the new Jimmy Stewart, HA, as if Jimmy Stewart would ever play a character who squashed a delightful independent bookstore like a bug and then got romantically rewarded for it.
Also, given Tom Hanks’ job in You've Got Mail, you know he’s just squashing adorable little bookstores every day. This is his life! This is what he does! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR FOR A ROMANTIC HERO. Sometimes you’ve just got to draw a hard line and apparently “wanton bookstore destruction” is mine.
Ephron was also responsible for the travesty that is the 2005 Bewitched movie. I loved the TV show and I went to see the movie in theaters and I was DEVASTATED, so devastated that it put me off Nicole Kidman for years.
...I actually quite like Julie and Julia, though, to round off this romp through Norah Ephron’s filmography. There’s so much food! What’s not to love about a movie that’s all about food!
Anyway, given my previous Ephron experiences I fully expected to finish Sleepless in Seattle feeling a deep aversion to at least one of the actors, but in fact it helped me feel better about Tom Hanks. He doesn’t destroy any bookstores in this one! He’s mostly a decent and non-creepy guy!
Meg Ryan carries the creep honors in this movie, flying across the country to meet/spy on/write a magazine article about a guy that she became obsessed with after hearing him talk about his dead wife on a radio program. On the one hand: yes, kind of creepy. On the other hand, it’s creepy but non-threatening (she’s not nailing her underwear to his door or anything), so eh.
I did like the fact that her non-Tom Hanks fiance is basically a good guy. He has all the markers of Good Husband Material, but she’s just not in love with him and that’s that. I like to think he finds someone who is into his weird awkward ability to deflate potentially romantic moments and all is well with them.
I think one of the hardest lessons we learn in this world is that love isn’t something that anyone can deserve. Or, rather, on an abstract and spiritual level, we may all deserve love, but there’s no way to deserve love from a specific person: except possibly one’s parents no one ever owes you love, no matter what you do for them. Even if you bake someone 5,000 cakes they are still entirely within their rights to say, “Nah, I’m just not feeling it.”
But on the flip side, you never owe it to anyone to love them either no matter how abstractly deserving they are. So that’s a relief.
Also, given Tom Hanks’ job in You've Got Mail, you know he’s just squashing adorable little bookstores every day. This is his life! This is what he does! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR FOR A ROMANTIC HERO. Sometimes you’ve just got to draw a hard line and apparently “wanton bookstore destruction” is mine.
Ephron was also responsible for the travesty that is the 2005 Bewitched movie. I loved the TV show and I went to see the movie in theaters and I was DEVASTATED, so devastated that it put me off Nicole Kidman for years.
...I actually quite like Julie and Julia, though, to round off this romp through Norah Ephron’s filmography. There’s so much food! What’s not to love about a movie that’s all about food!
Anyway, given my previous Ephron experiences I fully expected to finish Sleepless in Seattle feeling a deep aversion to at least one of the actors, but in fact it helped me feel better about Tom Hanks. He doesn’t destroy any bookstores in this one! He’s mostly a decent and non-creepy guy!
Meg Ryan carries the creep honors in this movie, flying across the country to meet/spy on/write a magazine article about a guy that she became obsessed with after hearing him talk about his dead wife on a radio program. On the one hand: yes, kind of creepy. On the other hand, it’s creepy but non-threatening (she’s not nailing her underwear to his door or anything), so eh.
I did like the fact that her non-Tom Hanks fiance is basically a good guy. He has all the markers of Good Husband Material, but she’s just not in love with him and that’s that. I like to think he finds someone who is into his weird awkward ability to deflate potentially romantic moments and all is well with them.
I think one of the hardest lessons we learn in this world is that love isn’t something that anyone can deserve. Or, rather, on an abstract and spiritual level, we may all deserve love, but there’s no way to deserve love from a specific person: except possibly one’s parents no one ever owes you love, no matter what you do for them. Even if you bake someone 5,000 cakes they are still entirely within their rights to say, “Nah, I’m just not feeling it.”
But on the flip side, you never owe it to anyone to love them either no matter how abstractly deserving they are. So that’s a relief.
