Film

She’s an independent bookstore owner; he’s heir to Fox Books, the Barnes-and-Noble-type conglomerate out to destroy her. Can they see past their differences and realize they’re made for each other? In this e-pistolary reprise of Sleepless in Seattle, director Nora Ephron adapts Ernst Lubitsch's The Shop Around the Corner, and praises dial-up Internet for preserving anonymity between people who live on the same block. Carrying out an email-only affair using the handles “NY152” and “Shopgirl,” rom-com power duo Hanks and Ryan establish ground rules (“No names! No identifying details!”) reminiscent of today’s Craigslist hookups.

Have there always been more single women in Manhattan than bachelors? At the dawn of dating, one recent immigrant realizes just how desperate New York women are for romance.