A 90s classic about anonymous confessions of love that perhaps cemented Tom
Hanks as a romantic sweetheart.
This 1993 strangers to lovers tale, with the warm undertones and summer hues
that are a trademark of that era, still lives up today as a perfect romantic fantasy
of love before Direct Messages were a thing. We follow Sam, played by a young
Tom Hanks, still dealing with the death of his wife while trying to be an adequate
single parent to his eight year old son, Jonah (Ross Malinger). They’ve both moved
to Seattle to start afresh, but Jonah realizes that his father might be struggling a
bit more he’s letting on. And so, as any logical eight year old, he calls a radio
station and persuades his father to talk, on air, about how much he misses his
wife. Things take a turn here as thousands of women, touched by a man showing
emotions, start sending Sam love letters. One of those letters is from Annie (Meg
Ryan), which she writes while watching ‘An Affair To Remember’ and in a sudden
bout of emotion, asks him to meet her on top of the Empire State on Valentine’s
Day.
Jonah can immediate sense that she is the one (although might have
a little do with the fact that this was the only letter that mentioned him as well)
and tries to convince his father to go see her but Sam couldn’t be less interested
in packing his backs to go see a stranger. And so it begins, the entire movie takes
us through many ups and down, will they or wont they’s that all eventually unfold
into a sweet climax at the top of the Empire State.
In the runtime of an hour and 45 minutes, the movie manages to cover a lot of
ground. It is evident that Sam was so struggling severely with the loss of wife that
he couldn’t even stand to stay in the same city, his only respite being his son.
Jonah, too, is coping as best as he can after going through an event as tragic as
the loss of his mother at the mere age of eight. He can’t stand to see his father
lonely and hence gets into all the shenanigans that kick-start the story but it is
clear his motivations also come from longing and loneliness and wanting things to
return to the way they used to, the picture perfect happy family he no longer has.
Miles away from these two, Annie is second guessing her own life decisions,
engaged to a man she doesn’t feel connected to in the slightest, not quite
understanding why she wrote a letter to a stranger from a radio show. There is a
certain melancholy about all three of them, as they go on with their lives that
concludes in them finding their way to the top of the Empire State, and to each
other.
Nora Ephron’s gift for crafting romances that somewhat cheesy and yet
very enjoyable comes through in every second of film. The seconds are measured
perfectly too, in less than two hours, the story doesn’t drag on for a minute more
than it needs to. In the two decades since its release, the movie has, with good
reason, become a staple comfort watch. It’s certainly no masterpiece, but it is a
classic.
Naina Priyadarshi Mishra
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