You've Got Mail - How It Should Have Ended
I love February for all of its misery. I’m indifferent to Valentine's day but ugly weather leaves me inspired. Nothing makes me more eager to sit at my desk and create than terrible gray weather.
So how do you celebrate another lovely, gray month gone by? You rewrite the ending to one of the most popular romantic comedies of all time. That’s right! It’s time to take a deep dive into the movie You’ve Got Mail!
Why You've Got Mail you ask? It’s a cult classic. Great characters, a fun use of the trope enemies to lovers and excellent themes. It's perfect, you say, but I disagree!
I just don’t believe Kathleen Kelly is happy to see Fox as her secret pen pal. The whole movie is building up to this moment and I feel it was would have written the ending a bit differently.
Kathleen is a character lost in her fantasy. Two cars nearly collide on the New York street as she comments to her employee how lovely a day it is. The two drivers start yelling at each other but Kathleen blissfully ignores them. She is in denial that her store will be affected at all by the big bookstore moving in next door, believing the virtues of her story books will keep her safe. And even when she does have to face the reality of closing, she and her coworkers choose not to dwell on it but to instead look at it as a brave thing. Kelly’s inability to face reality is her major character flaw but it is also her charm. When Fox comes to her bookstore, he finds her perspective “enchanting”. He is delighted by her and is afraid to break the illusion by revealing that he is her competition right next door.
Fox has had to face reality very early in life. Having a unique home life with many “mothers” broke any childhood illusion he may have had early in life. He has a very young aunt, a brother that could be his son, and a stepmom who would be very happy to have him in her bed. He was raised in the world of businessmen which gave him a very cold reality check. Life is stark where money rules. Still, he allows himself a small fantasy that love could be a real thing, and he allows himself to chat to a delightful stranger via email who he of course realizes one day is Kathleen.
That is when the real fantasy begins for Fox. He starts to imagine he and this wonderful woman could, maybe, love one another. Kathleen, the one whom he has destroyed the livelihood and legacy of, has made him a hopeless romantic. Now who is the dreamer?
Meanwhile, Kelly is having to face the music. She had been moving through life others had written for her. She had had the bookstore her mother wanted her to have. She filled the role of bookstore owner just as her mother had and she enjoys the comfort of her co-workers' company through blissful days. But now all of those dreams have come and gone. She’s waking up to her own story Kathleen realizes she might be ok with losing the bookstore. She doesn’t really love her nerdy boyfriend who is stuck in the past where the internet doesn't exist and typewriters rule. He has been living in a fantasy too and it is no longer attractive to Kathleen. Our heroine starts to see that the world demands she take hold of her reality. All of her friends aren’t interested in following in her footsteps - all but Fox.
As Kathleen faces her reality, she and Fox begin to meet in the middle of their once very stark differences. He, through his banter, helps her find her footing and she helps him dream of a life no longer alone. But Fox is afraid. He is afraid to hit her with the truth that he is her fantastic, understanding, mystery man on the email chat. How can he be sure that she is ready to embrace reality and not be lost in a fantasy like all the other storybook lovers?
Finally, he makes his move at the end of the movie. He sets up a date for them to meet but arranges to see Kathleen beforehand. This is his last date with her before the illusion is broken. He uses this moment to tell Kathleen that he wishes she would be able to find a way to forgive him for being responsible for closing down her bookshop. After all, she found a way to forgive the fabulous email guy for standing her up almost a year before. In his own way, Fox is telling her that he hopes she can find a way to forgive him for breaking her illusions and making her face reality - something he is about to do to her all over again when she meets him for this final date and realizes her fantasy man has been Fox this whole time. As the movie would have it, Kelly leaves without promising any forgiveness and Fox finds her waiting for him later on, surprised and relieved he is the fantasy she had been dreaming of.
But this falls flat for me. The fact that Kathleen leaves Fox to meet her pen pal proves that she is still secretly hoping that there is someone better than Fox out there. This is why she feels not genuine when she says she had hoped it was him all along at the end of the movie. If she had hoped it was Fox all along, why did he find her in the park waiting for someone else? Imagine this had been the scenario instead:
Fox returns to the gardens to reveal to Kelly that he is the email pen pal only to be stood up by her. He looks around but she is simply not there. When he returns to his boat, he opens up his email and finds he has mail. It’s Kelly. The email reads as follows:
I’m sorry I wasn’t there to greet you at the park today. I know you probably think I’m getting back at you for standing me up at the coffee shop. That wasn’t why, but I was reminded of that time when I was getting ready to meet you. I had been nervous and anxious and all sorts of flustered. But I was excited. I was excited to finally meet someone who I felt could actually understand me.
This time it was different. I realized that this time I didn’t really want to meet you. I’m sure you are charming and lovely but you couldn’t possibly be all the things I’ve conjured you up to be and I’m sure I couldn’t be everything you imagine me to be either. I guess I realized that no matter how wonderful you would be, I was going to be disappointed, simply because you would finally be real.
It’s not either of our faults for being human, it’s just what it is. And seeing how we are now both in the business of disappointing each other, I have to admit that I haven’t been completely honest with you. I’ve been seeing someone these past few months. I never thought of it as a serious relationship until I imagined meeting you today. I realized that if I was going to be meeting someone new, I rather hoped that you would turn out to be someone like him. In fact, I realized that I would be disappointed if you weren’t him.
I am really sorry to be saying this to you, but you have helped me once again, possibly for the last time. I know you never intended this but you have helped me realize that I love this man I have been seeing. It took the chance of meeting you to understand that. I really hope you can forgive me.
That is how we know that Kathleen wanted Fox in the end. She gives up her fantasy of the perfect guy to have the reality of Fox. Imagine that next date. Imagine how that kiss would feel with her knowing she wants him and with him knowing that she loves him for who he is - harsh business man and all. Both characters have grown through their flaws and the themes have tied up nicely. Now that is a holiday classic!
