Movies to Reconsider: Rogerebert.com’s “Unloved” Series

Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan make a great romantic movie team, don’t they? “You’ve Got Mail” and “Sleepless in Seattle” are two of the most popular romantic comedies of the 90’s. But hardly anyone loves — or even remembers — the third film they made together, the 1990 film “Joe Versus the Volcano,” written and directed by John Patrick Shanley, who also wrote one of the greatest romantic films of all time (“Moonstruck”) and the prestige drama “Doubt.” Ryan plays three different women who have encounters with Hanks’ character, a man with a fatal illness. It’s the subject of the latest in a wonderful “Unloved” series of tributes to neglected gems has by Scout Tafoya.

And over on Rogerebert.com Matt Zoller Seitz interviewed Shanley about the film.

Why did you decide to have all three significant women in Joe’s life be played by the same person, Meg Ryan?

I’ve found that many men and women, when dealing with different people, are always basically—in romantic situations—dealing with the one woman in their head that they’re struggling to get right, or the one man in their head they’re just struggling to get right. And I thought I could make that point very nicely by having three roles played by the same woman.

Might be time to give that movie another chance.