One Line Review: Truly Iconic in every sense of the words – ‘When Harry Met Sally’ is a combination of great acting and phenomenal writing skills.

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Youtube Trailer When Harry Met Sally

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Starring: Billy Crystal, Megan Ryan

Director:  Rob Reiner

Release Date: 12 July 1989

Introduction

Welcome Back. Today We’ll be discussing a film which is most famous for its romantic scenes and couple moments. But is this film really about love and couple moments, or has a deeper meaning to its romance? Let’s find out.

Trivia

There is a scene when Megan is screaming wildly in the restaurant when they both are going out to eat. The dialogue “I’ll have what she is having” was not in the script, but Billy anticipated and asked Nora to add it. The dialogue turned out to be one of the most iconic scenes of the film. 

Iconic dialogues from the movie

“All I’m saying is that somewhere out there is the man you are supposed to marry. And if you don’t get him first, somebody else will, and you’ll have to spend the rest of your life knowing that somebody else is married to your husband.” -Marie on the difficulty of being single.

“You take someone to the airport, it’s clearly the beginning of the relationship. That’s why I have never taken anyone to the airport at the beginning of a relationship. Because eventually things move on and you don’t take someone to the airport, and I never wanted anyone to say to me, How come you never take me to the airport anymore?” -Pro relationship tips from Harry.

Critic Reviews

“When Harry Met Sally is a beautiful, brainy, touching, and tilting romantic comedy that should touch the heartstrings of lovers and those yearning to be in love everywhere.” THR Staff

“Ephron’s tart, the grown-up script examines the inevitably of love finding a way despite the fight put up by this famous pair of snappy New Yorkers.” Ian Nathan

Plot Summary

Harry and Sally meet accidentally and share a car ride, but they can not stand each other. After the ride, they say goodbye forever. But after few years, they meet again and have a similar conversation again. Finally, ten years after their first meeting, they meet again at a bookstore and decides to stay friends, without any intimacy and sex, despite their feeling for each other. Oh yeah, They still can’t stand each other by the way. 

The expectation breaking writing

Let me explain what I mean by expectation breaking. The concept of genre is very vital in filmmaking. The audience identifies whether a movie is romantic, or crime, or drama, or whatever. Similarly, for writers, the concept of genre is also fundamental. It simply decides the life or death of the whole script. Let me tell you how. If a writer wants to write a film for the crime genre, he must act accordingly and follow the set patterns. In a crime film, the audience expects a crime to happen early in the movie, and the rest of the film has a detective solving the mystery of that crime. If they are halfway through the film already and there’s no crime happened until now, they will not like the movie. You get my point.

The same goes for romantic movies; two people usually meet accidentally. They can not stand each other, yet they have to spend time together for some reason ( Road trip, train journey sharing the same seat, or whatever), and they fall in love. But in this film, Hary and Sally don’t fall in love. They meet accidentally. They can’t stand each other yet have to go on a road trip together, but they don’t fall in love. Instead, say goodbye to each other at the end of the journey. After a few years, they meet again (accidentally), still can’t stand each other. Yet they don’t fall in love. 

Ten years after their first meeting, they meet again (in their 30s) accidentally. They still can’t stand each other, but this time they develop a connection. Surprisingly, the connection isn’t love but friendship. Not with benefits. 

Acting

Without a doubt, the acting of both Billy Crystal and Megan Ryan is above the standards. The excellent writing alone wouldn’t have survived long without the acting of Billy and Megan. Like I said When Hary Met Sally is a marvelous combination of excellent writing and phenomenal acting performances of Billy and Megan. 

Conclusion

The film is widely misunderstood as a romantic film. It’s not. Instead, its central theme lies in the question of whether a man and a woman be friends without ruining their relationship with intimacy and sex. This film is more about friendship than love.