Upon initial view, When Harry Met Sally… seems like a shameless Hollywood rip-off of Woody Allen’s masterpieces Annie Hall and Manhattan, which is slightly ironic, given that we just took a look at Annie Hall last week. There were so many similarities — the Jew-shiksa romance, the lush autumn New York City foliage, the ivory-tinkling Gershwin standards, even the white credits set on a black background. But now, the movie plays as a loving homage to a director who had already lost his romantic-comedy way. And as it turns out, Rob Reiner’s film about two friends trying to have a platonic relationship was ahead of its time. But, well …. there’s only one roadblock: looooooooove.
Reiner and screenwriter Nora Ephron start the plot whirling in 1977. Sally is giving Harry, her girlfriend’s lover, a ride from Chicago to New York. He’s too pushy and vulgar for her; she’s too hoity-toity for him. Harry thinks a man and woman can’t be friends without sex becoming an issue. “Even when the woman is unattractive?” Sally asks. “You want to nail them, too,” says he. Harry and Sally may be a match made in hell, but watching them is movie heaven.
For the next eleven years, Harry, a political consultant, and Sally, a journalist, labor to stay in friendship and out of each other’s bed. In New York, rapturously shot by Barry Sonnenfeld, they are the walking wounded, oblivious to the ardent atmosphere. Harry’s wife has dumped him for a tax attorney; Sally’s fella is planning a wedding but not with Sally. Harry sets up his pal with Sally, and Sally pairs up her chum with Harry. Disaster. The two friends become lovers instead, having little patience with two people who can’t see the obvious: Harry and Sally were meant for each other.
The most famous line of dialogue (not counting Sally’s fake orgasm, which is more a series of moans and screams than actual words), “Men and women can’t be friends because the sex part always gets in the way,” became a frequent topic of talk show discussions, magazine articles, and dinner table conversations during 1989. After raising the issue, the film spends the rest of its running length challenging it, and it’s up to the viewer to decide whether the premise is proven or disproven by events. After all, although Harry and Sally become fast friends, their relationship does not remain platonic.
When Harry Burns and Sally Albright first meet, both are leaving the University of Chicago for New York City (him to become a political consultant, her to become a journalist), and they share the drive. Along the way, they discover that they have little in common. At one point, Harry makes a pass at Sally, but she demurs, saying that they’ll have to settle for being friends. That’s when he makes his famous comment. They part in Manhattan, and it’s five years before they bump into each other again, this time in an airport. By then, Harry is engaged to be married and Sally is in the midst of a serious relationship. They spend some time together on a plane, then separate amicably when they reach their destination. Their next encounter occurs in the late-’80s. They are both newly single (Harry’s wife has recently left him and Sally has broken off a long-term, dead-end affair), and this mutual bond of loss draws them into a close friendship. When events push their relationship over the sexual line, things don’t go smoothly.
Although Harry and Sally dominate the film, they are not the only couples we meet. Woven into the story is the romance between Sally’s best friend, Marie (Carrie Fisher, shedding the remnants of the Princess Leia image), and Harry’s close chum, Jess (Bruno Kirby). To add a slightly different flavor to the movie, Reiner occasionally interrupts the proceedings with documentary-style clips from interviews with elderly husbands and wives, all fondly recalling how they met. The actors in these scenes are so credible that it’s easy to be fooled into thinking they’re real couples recounting genuine anecdotes, rather than performers working from a script.
When Harry Met Sally is not a perfect film. In fact, one of the movie’s most important scenes is marred by an “off” performance by Meg Ryan. It happens when Sally, distressed at learning that her previous boyfriend is getting married, breaks down in Harry’s arms. While Crystal does a fine job of underplaying the moment, Ryan is glaringly over-the-top, and it gives the scene an awkward feel. This may be the only instance during the picture when Reiner is unable to effectively balance comedy and drama.
Ultimately, When Harry Met Sally works because it dares to be slightly different from most romantic comedies. While there’s nothing radical in the trajectory of Harry and Sally’s romance, it’s not entirely conventional, either. The two main characters are well-written, with both easily transcending the level of stereotyping they could have easily fallen into. The dialogue is smart and witty, offering numerous quotable passages. However, although the film poses some intriguing questions about the nature of male/female relationships, it never really answers them, instead using this material as little more than a jumping-off point for the interaction between Harry and Sally.
Will it seal the deal? It’s a romantic movie, but this isn’t a Guarandamnteeya type of movie. However, what the movie can do is open an honest dialogue between you and a friend, because that’s the gist of the movie. And sometimes, that’s what you need. Now, will that lead to you sheboyganing a froidlaven? Not necessarily at all, but it could. And sometimes, once again, that’s what you need-a chance.