Saturday, September 29, 2007

Boon has been pestering me too watch this movie ever since I can remember, convincing me that I would love it but I told him no, I wasn't ready to. I know it's just a movie but sometimes the mood has got to be right or I might just miss the whole essence of a movie. So I finally watch the movie one fine windy day and ended up soaking some tissues.

It's about Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) who owns The Shop Around the Corner, a children's books specialty store meeting Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) via AOL who runs the family business chain store, Fox Books. Coincidentally a Fox Books chain arrives in the vicinity and Kathleen and Joe becomes business rivals in reality. Yes, they both fell in love with each other before the story fades into ending.

What I like about the movie is the premise of the story. Big chain bookstores with book knowledge incompetent staff threatening to end the neighbourhood-friendly bookstore with huge discounts and volume. (Sounds morbidly familiar?) Joe Fox said, 'it's just business nothing personal' when he tried to reason out with Kathleen on the opening of Fox Books. It's just sad because The Shop Around the Corner has all the charm and knowledgeable staff on hand that a bookstore should be but was put out of business because it couldn't compete in terms of discounts. I guess that's just reality and you either accept that fact and reinvent or just be stubborn and be trampled upon.

When The Shop Around the Corner finally closes its door, Kathleen walks over to Fox Books and heads to the children section. What she saw surprised her because she thought that a huge bookstore was incapable of providing the joy of reading to children. Instead she saw kids sitting around thumbing through pages, engrossed in their own little worlds. Kathleen finally realises that kids will still enjoy reading long after the memories of her bookstore fade from the minds of her loyal customers.

I really enjoyed watching this movie and was really excited when I heard a familiar passage being read by Kathleen during a storytelling session in her shop. It was from Boy by Roald Dahl (whee!). Also, there was a scene where Kathleen was moving a stack of recognisable Shel Silverstein books (yet another favourite author of mine) and you can see The Cat in the Hat standee from Dr Seuss as well as a few other popular children books in The Shop Around the Corner.

A must-watch for book lovers and a box of tissues will be handy.

p/s Although unheard of in Malaysia, it seems perfectly fine for someone with a PhD in Children's Literature to work on the shop level of a bookstore. How cool is that?

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