Movie Review: When Harry Met Sally

Rob Reiner’s When Harry Met Sally (1989) is a modern classic romantic comedy. It is the story of a man and a woman who originally met right after high school before they went their separate ways. Years later the two bump into each other and don’t think much of it until the situation arises a few more times. After bumping into each other so many times, they eventually start talking and become good friends. Their problem is that they can’t figure out if they should become something more. “Can two friends sleep together and still love each other in the morning?” the tagline asks.
Billy Crystal’s character, Harry, isn’t dumb, but he certainly isn’t what you would call smart. Sally (played by Meg Ryan) on the other hand, is portrayed as a smart reasonable woman who’s only problem is that she is too uptight. Often in romantic comedies we find that the woman is the most sensible of the two, but the male has some desirable aspects as well, in this case Harry is more relaxed and calm. Lots of clever dialogue and discussion (typically involving the differences between the sexes) can be heard throughout films of the genre and When Harry Met Sally is no exception. The most famous example, of course, would be the discussion about faked female orgasms. Sally brings up the topic and enlightens the seemingly aloof Harry who never thought it could happen to him. This too fits in with the idea of the knowledgeable female aspect of the genre.
The main problem I have with this romantic comedy is that it is a romantic comedy. Romantic comedies in general just aren’t my cup of tea. Every once in awhile you will find an appealing film such as High Fidelity, but overall the movies don’t catch my interest. Also, the obligatory close friend that each character must have to talk to about the relationship is always pretty annoying. In When Harry Met Sally this is especially true. The characters aren’t developed at all and are hardly believable. The two extra friends are obviously just put there to “enhance” the main characters, but really, they just annoyed me.
I did, however, like Billy Crystal’s character and performance in the film, as I did with many of his other movies. Harry is so care free yet often straight-forward, it is hard not to like his character. A good example of this is the scene in which Harry tells Sally that they two people of different sexes can never be friends because the “sex gets in the way”, all the while Harry speaks as if he was talking about any mundane subject and doesn’t get nervous. I especially liked the humor that Crystal brought to the movie. He doesn’t always need to make jokes, sometimes his weird looking face and temperament are enough to qualify as humor.
Personally, I would not recommend this movie to any friends of mine. While it did have it’s moments, we must remember that it is in fact a romantic comedy in it’s purest form and therefore must be avoided at all costs. It had every cliché aspect of the genre and the same character traits that are used over and over again. It is possible, however, that I would recommend it to somebody who enjoys the genre, although this would not be a friend of mine because I typically try and steer of those type of people.

3 stars