It’s been almost 20 years since Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks put Manhattan’s Upper West Side on the map in the rom-com classic You’ve Got Mail.
Visit my neighborhood today and all the movie’s sights are still here — the local restaurants where they rendezvoused, the farmer’s market, Riverside Park. Everything but her little Shop Around the Corner.
Well, that’s changing.
Book Culture is opening their doors literally around the corner from my brownstone apartment and taking up the ‘small bookshop mantle’ that Meg’s character abandoned lo’ those many years ago.
Their window says it best:
Now, the modern version of the movie’s ‘big bad Fox Books’ exists today — Barnes & Noble is just a couple of blocks away. So it will be interesting to see how this small store will compete on selection and pricing.
But I for one am excited to see life imitate art just feet from my doorsteps.
Wonder if the proprietor will be as photogenic?
The Sticky Egg 
Moving pictures
The trailer for Words & Pictures, starring Juliette Binoche and Clive Owen, makes it look like a light romantic comedy.
Makes you wonder if the marketing folks even watched the film.
The promo oversimplifies the story to its most basic elements: two teachers at a private high school clash on the relative importance of art and literature while falling in love.
Tragic.
Not the movie; it was lovely. What is tragic is everything the trailer leaves out.
I don’t expect it to reveal every detail — I’d prefer it didn’t — but the love story in W&P is very specific to the two teachers’ ages, health issues, and work and family situations. It’s complicated because their lives are more complicated, which makes it a more interesting and multi-layered story.
And it deserves a trailer that reflects that.
Oh well, I’m a happy camper — I got way more movie than I expected!
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Posted in Advertising, Commentary, Entertainment, Humor, Movies
Tagged advertising, art, Clive Owen, commentary, entertainment, film, happy camper, health issues, Humor, it's complicated, Juliette Binoche, life, literature, love story, movie promos, movie trailers, Movies, moving pictures, private school, promotion, review, romantic comedy, teachers, Words & Pictures