Watching, or rather enduring, Amazon-MGM’s charmless new romantic comedy Maintenance Required, I was so convinced it was an officially sanctioned re-imagining of You’ve Got Mail that I scoured the credits for confirmation. Surely, even in this cursed AI era of copyright erosion, no one would so shamelessly regurgitate the beats of that much-adored film without giving the requisite credit?
But try as I might, I could not find a “based on” or even a “thanks to”, the film a copy of a film which was itself a (legally sound) remake of a film which had been inspired by a play (the script even, cheekily, refers to “a sweet little shop around the corner”). In a film that will hopefully be used as evidence in an upcoming lawsuit, a woman tries to keep her struggling local business alive as a big-brand competitor opens over the street while she secretly chats to a man online who just so happens to be her business rival. Scene where he tells her to fight for what’s hers, which leads her to a TV appearance? Check. Scene where he finds out who she really is as she waits for their first in-person date? Check. Ensuing scene where he shows up, doesn’t tell her the truth, and she blasts him for being a corporate sellout? Check. Winning chemistry, sharp wit and a buoyantly romantic ending? Oh, wait.
