YOU’VE GOT MAIL, directed by Nora Ephron, written by Ephron and Delia Ephron, based on the screenplay “The Shop Around the Corner” by Samson Raphaelson. Running time: 116 minutes. Rated PG (for brief, mild language).

Lately, it seems the only way to generate old-fashioned Hollywood romance in a late 1990s film is to dip back into the past and steal from old-fashioned Hollywood classics.

With mixed results, Hollywood is doing that, most recently in “Meet Joe Black,” which retold 1934’s “Death Takes a Holiday,” and now in Nora Ephron’s “You’ve Got Mail,” which reworks Ernst Lubitsch’s “The Shop Around the Corner,” an excellent, 1940 comedy that inspired Judy Garland’s “In the Good Old Summertime” and the Broadway musical “She Loves Me.”

This isn’t the first time Ephron has gone bobbing for inspiration. Her first foray into that dim cinematic practice was three years ago in 1995’s “Sleepless in Seattle,” which was essentially a remake of 1957’s “An Affair to Remember.”

“Sleepless” was a smash hit, bringing to screen the electric chemistry of Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, who make falling in love seem as if it were stamped with Cupid’s approval. Not one to fool with formula, Ephron, who needs a critical hit after the poorly received “Michael,” has now upped the ante by stealing from herself: In “Mail,” she’s cast Ryan and Hanks opposite each other once again, this time in a situation remarkably similar to “Sleepless.”

Indeed, the hook in “You’ve Got Mail” is wondering whether Hanks and Ryan will fall in love again — this time through the woven tapestry of modems that feed into the chitty-chatty chat rooms of America Online.

In a film of unexpected psychological depth, it all works beautifully. To her credit, Ephron understands and respects the great leap of faith it takes to jump into a cyberromance. As lighthearted as her film is, she never takes the romance between Joe Fox (Hanks) and Kathleen Kelly (Ryan) lightly.

She knows that even in cyberspace, the emotions are real, that for the romantically challenged, love-starved Net head, hearing America Online’s mechanical “You’ve got mail” can be an intoxicating thrill, offering hope and mystery in three short syllables.

But she also knows that not hearing that message can be crushing to someone expecting to hear it, and that if a cyberromance doesn’t work out, it can be devastating to the person who’s put so much of themselves into it.

“You’ve Got Mail” stands as the year’s best romantic comedy not only because of the cinematic appeal of Hanks and Ryan, but because of Ephron’s instincts and sensitivity; she may have borrowed from Lubitsch’s film, but she’s also departed from it, offering a timely film that is very much her own — and warm in ways that many of us miss.

Grade: A-

Video of the week

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, directed by Frank Capra, written by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett and Capra. 160 minutes. No MPAA rating.

Frank Capra’s greatest film, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” was never intended to be a Christmas classic. It marked Capra’s first film after returning home from World War II, and Capra — a populist whose previous films included “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” “You Can’t Take it with You,” and “It Happened One Night” — wanted it to be unusually good, a sort of tribute to the working-class people he knew were at the heart of America, and whose dreams often went dashed because of bad luck or circumstance.

The film mirrors this tribute in James Stewart’s haunting performance as George Bailey, Capra’s idealized Everyman whose dreams would have carried him far and away from his small hometown of Bedford Falls, N.Y., had he not reluctantly given them up to fight for the survival of his family’s struggling savings and loan.

It is the weight of the responsibility George feels toward the bank, its patrons, his family and people of Bedford Falls that gives “It’s a Wonderful Life” its poignancy, its power and its considerable emotional depth. The film began — quite fittingly — as “The Greatest Gift” an original short story first written on a Christmas card by Philip Van Doren Stern. That humble beginning seems absolutely appropriate for a film whose dark, universal themes have humbled audiences for more than 50 years.

Grade: A

Editor’s Note: Tonight on WLBZ’s “News Center 5:30 Today,” Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith reviews four holiday films. His reviews appear here each Monday in the NEWS. Each Thursday on “5:30 Today,” he reviews what’s new and worth renting in video stores.