Monday 29 April 2019

Happy Endings?


[Spoiler alert: If you haven’t seen You’ve Got Mail but plan to, better not read this.]


I went to New York last week and, one afternoon, stopped at Books of Wonder. This is the (excellent) children’s bookshop whose stock was used as background dressing for the film You’ve Got Mail, and where star Meg Ryan spent a few days working to get a feel for her character, the owner of the shop in the film.

         
                                      

During a conversation with one of the assistants, we talked about YGM, and both of us agreed that we liked it until the third act and the conclusion. The assistant really hadn’t enjoyed that.

                                               


‘It’s just not good enough,’ she said. ‘I mean, I want a nice fluffy ending for such a story. And that didn’t have one. I don’t care if Meg Ryan does find the man of her dreams. Even if it’s Tom Hanks. She’s lost her bookshop!’

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Nick Garlick is an English writer living in the Netherlands. He's published Aunt Severe and the Dragons, Aunt Severe and the Toy Thieves and Storm Horse. He has a website: www.nickgarlick.com

3 comments:

Susan Price said...

Who could disagree? Mind, if I owned a bookshop, I doubt I'd ever get any work done.

Nick said...

Yes indeed. Regular, hourly checks of the shop would be called for.

Anne Booth said...

I so understand that reaction! It's a lovely film, but there should have been a way to keep her bookshop too!