Roger Ebert started his review by saying, “"When Harry Met Sally..." is a love story with a form as old as the movies and dialogue as new as this month's issue of Vanity Fair.”
Ebert continued, “It's about two people who could be characters in a Woody Allen movie, if they weren't so sunny, and about how it takes them 12 years to fall in love.” We’re with them, or maybe a little ahead of them, every step of the way.
Harry meets Sally for the first time at the University of Chicago in the spring of 1977, when they go together taking turns driving for a trip to New York. Both plan to start their careers in the city – she as a journalist, he as a political consultant. Apparently, they are both successful, because they live in those apartments that only people in the movies can afford, but their professional lives are completely off-screen. We see them only at those parts when they see each other.
For example, they meet several years later at LaGuardia Airport.
She’s with a new boyfriend. They meet again after that, when they’re both in relationships, and after that, when her boyfriend has left, and his wife wants a divorce. They keep on meeting until they realize that they like one another, and they become friends – even though on their very first cross-country trip, Harry warned Sally that true friendship is impossible between a man and a woman, because the problem of intercourse always gets in the way.
The movie somehow believes that – and it also suggests that the best way to get rid of intercourse as an issue is to get married, since married people always seem too tired for intercourse. Ebert said, “That and other theories about sex and relationships are tested as if Harry and Sally were proving grounds for Cosmopolitan, until finally, tired of fighting, they admit that they do love one another after all.”
Ebert continued, “The movie was written by Nora Ephron, and could be a prequel to her novel and screenplay "Heartburn," which starred Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep in the story of a marriage and divorce.” However, this marriage looks to be going towards happier times, maybe because of the big fights are out of the way before love is even professed.
Harry is played by Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan is Sally, and they make a good movie couple because both actors can show real warmth and sensitivity. This isn’t a romance of passion, despite passion is present, but one that becomes possible only because the two people have grown up together, have matured until they can finally see clearly what they really want in a partner.
Ephron’s dialogue represents the way people would like to be able to talk. It’s funny and concise, and there are lots of lines to quote when you’re telling friends about the movie. The dialogue would kill many actors, but Crystal and Ryan help it to work. Their characters look smart and quick enough to almost be this funny. It’s only occasionally that the humor is paid for at the cost of authority – like the hilarious but unimpressive scene where Sally sits in a crowded restaurant demonstrating a very controversial part of intercourse. Ebert admitted, “I laughed, but somehow I didn't think Sally, or any woman, would really do that.”
Ebert continued, “"When Harry Met Sally..." was directed by Rob Reiner, the onetime Meathead of "All in the Family," whose credits now qualify him as one of Hollywood's very best directors of comedy.” Reiner’s films include “The Sure Thing,” “Stand by Me,” “This Is Spinal Tap!” and “The Princess Bride.” Each film is completely different from the others, and each one is successful in its own way.
This film might be his most predictable, when looking at the structure and the way it accomplishes our expectations. However, what makes it special, besides from the Ephron screenplay, is the chemistry between Crystal and Ryan.
Ebert described both, “She is an open-faced, bright-eyed blond; he's a gentle, skinny man with a lot of smart one-liners. What they both have (to repeat) is warmth.”
Ebert continued, “Crystal demonstrated that quality in his previous film, the underrated "Memories Of Me," and it's here again this time, in scenes when he visibly softens when he sees that he has hurt her.” He is one of the rare actors who can make an apology on the screen and convince us he means it.
Ryan has a difficult task – she spends most of the movie convincing Harry, and herself, that there’s nothing between them – and she must let us see that there is something, in the end.
Harry and Sally are helped, and sometimes delayed, in their romance by the efforts of their best friends, played by Carrie Fisher and Bruno Kirby, who meet on a blind date arranged by Harry and Sally, to give a possible partner for Sally and Harry. They’re the kind of people who don’t make it hard for themselves, who realize they like each other, and accept that fact, and act on it.
Harry and Sally are tough people. They fight happiness every step of the way, until it finally tires them out.
This is a very funny movie that I think everyone should see. This movie is famous for Rob Reiner’s mother saying, “I’ll have what she’s having” after Ryan’s controversial act in the crowded restaurant. Besides that one part, this movie is a joy to watch around this time of the year. Check it out if you haven’t because you will enjoy it, I promise.
Thank you for joining in today. Stay tuned Friday for the continuation of “Black History Month Movie Reviews.”
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