Scan barcode
A review by cass_lit
I'll Have What She's Having: How Nora Ephron's Three Iconic Films Saved the Romantic Comedy by Erin Carlson
4.0
You've Got Mail is my favorite movie of all time and it never fails to make a bad day a little better for me. And ever since I learned that When Harry Met Sally, which has so many of the same things I love in You've Got Mail, was written and directed by the same person? I knew I had to learn more about Nora Ephron. (Sleepless in Seattle never did it for me, unfortunately.)
Overall, I liked this. I learned a lot about Nora Ephron and my favorite movies of hers and I'm glad for it. The book also ends with an acknowledgement that she (and her movies) live in a bubble of straight, white people, which I was glad for. My major critique is that the book strayed a lot. It ended up being about everything and everyone in Norah's world generally. We'd go off on tangents about other well-grossing rom-coms being released around the same time. We'd get the important highlights of Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks's life stories as we went along, as well as other big name actors or staff that worked a lot with Norah. While occasionally I appreciated it and what it meant for the story, it got distracting at times as well.
The real negative though was finding out that Norah said of You've Got Mail, "it's about learning if you can fall in love with a republican," and called Joe Fox "slightly republican." I will be forgetting about these immediately because Kathleen Kelly would never. I mean, she's the one that calls out her ex for it! (I know the republicans of 1998 are still pre-Bush/pre-Trump/not today's republicans, but why are we coming for my comfort film like this???)
Overall, I liked this. I learned a lot about Nora Ephron and my favorite movies of hers and I'm glad for it. The book also ends with an acknowledgement that she (and her movies) live in a bubble of straight, white people, which I was glad for. My major critique is that the book strayed a lot. It ended up being about everything and everyone in Norah's world generally. We'd go off on tangents about other well-grossing rom-coms being released around the same time. We'd get the important highlights of Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks's life stories as we went along, as well as other big name actors or staff that worked a lot with Norah. While occasionally I appreciated it and what it meant for the story, it got distracting at times as well.
The real negative though was finding out that Norah said of You've Got Mail, "it's about learning if you can fall in love with a republican," and called Joe Fox "slightly republican." I will be forgetting about these immediately because Kathleen Kelly would never. I mean, she's the one that calls out her ex for it! (I know the republicans of 1998 are still pre-Bush/pre-Trump/not today's republicans, but why are we coming for my comfort film like this???)