Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

When my mother purchased the film, When Harry Met Sally on video, I initially thought, "oh no, not another romantic comedy!", and quite frankly, I despised the film. Even though it had the amazing Rob Reiner directing the film, and had Billy Crystal in the lead role, the thought of "romantic comedy" did deter me from watching this movie.

When I saw it listed among the American Film Institute's Top 100 Comedies, I was even more shocked, although that did somewhat make me want to watch the film just to see if it did make me laugh or not (other romantic comedies such as French Kiss failed to produce any laughs from me).
I have to say, after watching the movie, I was more than surprised to find myself laughing at the witty lines and the subtleties of the characters in the film.

The film evolves around the relationship between Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) and Sally Albright (Meg Ryan). The two first meet through Harry's girlfriend, Amanda (Michelle Nicastro), in college. Harry has to go to New York and Sally is offering him a free ride. During this trip to New York, we immediately think that these two people are not meant for each other. Harry is obnoxious and thinks that men and women can never be "friends" and that "the sex part" always has to be part of any male-female relationship. Sally strongly objects to this, and feels that Harry is hitting on her. Because of this, the two feel they cannot exist together.

We move 5 years after Sally drops Harry off at New York. Harry crashes into an old friend, Joe (Steven Ford), at an airport. And guess what? Yes, I think you know what happens. Sally is Joe's current girlfriend, and the two meet again. What's even more of a coincidence is that they both end up on the same flight. The two get to talk again, yet Harry still believes that the "sex part" has to be involved in a male-female relationship, and again, Sally disagrees with this, and we feel the two simply cannot be together in any sort of relationship. However, both are now in steady relationships (Harry is about to get married), so after the flight, our two friends separate in their own ways.

However after another 5 years, something happens again: both Harry's and Sally's marriages to their partners have come to an abrupt end. Sally seems to accept the separation from her partner, Joe, and that both had "differences" that split them further and further apart. While talking about the separation, Sally's best friend, Marie (Carrie Fisher), tries to get Sally to start anew with another man. While Sally seems to accept the separation from Joe, Harry cannot get over his divorce with his wife, Helen (Harley Jane Kozak), who Harry presumes has cheated on him for another man, Ira (Kevin Rooney). Harry talks about his problems with his best friend, Jess (Bruno Kirby), during a football game, and the two basically have a man-to-man talk, despite distractions from the football game (the ocassional Mexican wave).

However, the film cuts to Harry and Sally crashing into each other at a bookstore (with Marie, however, she runs off after the two greet each other). From here, the two finally start to establish a friendship, and Harry's principle of "the sex part always being involved in a male-female relationship" is put to the test.

Harry and Sally start to have walks together, start to have meals together frequently and begin calling each other night after night. From here, you think that the two are meant for each other and that a romance will be the result of all this.

Not quite true. Harry and Sally decide to have dinner together, along with their best friends, Marie and Jess. Harry attempts to get Sally together with Jess, while Sally attempts to get Marie together with Harry (both Marie and Jess are single). However, plans backfire and the result? Marie and Jess end up falling in love with each other, and the two eventually "tie the knot" (or get married if you are unsure what that means).

After this "failed" attempt, Harry and Sally's relationship develops further, and the two start to go shopping together, on top of all that was said before (calling each other every night, eating meals frequently together etc.). Will Harry and Sally finally get together? Or will they not?

As I said earlier, the film is quite funny! Before I start regurgitating lines from the film, I'll start with the famous orgasm scene from the film. Yes, I think most of you will know this scene. Basically, Harry and Sally are having lunch at a restaurant, and Harry and Sally are having a dispute over how Harry cannot tell the difference between a real orgasm and a fake one. Sally does do a fake orgasm in the middle of the restaurant, and a random old woman stares at her and tells the waiter, "I'll have what she's having". If you haven't seen this scene, you are missing out on a lot of laughter!

With the exception of the orgasm, most of the film's comedy comes from the extremely well-written script. The film is full of witty lines, whether it is Harry's obsession with saying that "men and women can't be friends because the sex part always gets in the way", or if it is some dialog between Harry and Sally talking about how Sally is "a high maintenance woman who thinks she's low maintenance" or if it is something as random as Sally stunned at the fact that Harry "made a woman meow". Basically, there are millions and millions of different lines for different scenes, and they all coalesce together extremely well (if you want more of these hilarious quotes, paste this address into the Address bar:

http://www.moviequotes.com/repository/titles/87135.html.

How Nora Ephron managed to write such a story and script is quite mind boggling.

The subtleties of the characters were another thing I thoroughly enjoyed about the film. Harry is obnoxious and is somewhat pessimistic about life as a whole, while Sally seems to be the cheerful and amiable type of person. The conversation between Harry and Sally at the beginning of the film establishes the types of character Harry and Sally are, and I find it funny that this side of their characters appear again and again throughout their relationship during the latter part of the film. It is also interesting when we look at Marie and Jess. Instead of the male being cynical here, it is Marie, who is the pessimist, while Jess is more optimistic. It is also interesting that from these descriptions, the relationships seem to follow the "opposites attract" rule.

How Rob Reiner directed such a great film puts me in awe. Through his direction, Reiner has included many different film techniques into the film. One of these is the use interviews throughout the film. Throughout the film, the camera "interviews" married couples. The married couples talk about how they met, what they felt when they met and how eventually they managed to fall in love with each other. It is interesting that it ranges from the typical American couple to the typical Chinese couple and to the couple who lived only a block away from each other during their childhood years, but only met in an elevator during their lives as adults. I find that these interviews really create the feeling that this is a romantic comedy, and it is amusing when you hear how a couple meet for the first time and how the romance branched from that (you're probably thinking, "HUH?!"; yep, I have a strange sense of humor). Reiner also used the split-screen quite frequently in the film to show the conversations between Harry and Sally (and at one point, there is a split screen conversation between Harry, Sally, Marie and Jess). This is a good technique to use in a film such as this one, but it's a pity that romantic comedies generally do not use this technique anymore. However, being able to see what Harry and Sally do during these conversations is always interesting to watch. Reiner did a great job incorporating all these techniques into the film, and through his direction, he managed to create a lot of laughter throughout the film. An excellent job from Reiner and I honestly cannot think of a better director to direct this kind of film.

Billy Crystal was just outright hilarious as Harry. His portrayal as the witty yet cynical male character was extremely well done and he was able to build the character by also making his character out to be extremely talkative (so talkative that he does not stop). Meg Ryan's portrayal as the "cute", optimistic Sally was also done very well, and her portrayal of Sally differs tremendously from that of Crystal's. The chemistry between Ryan and Crystal seemed authentic and their relationship was one of the few relationships I haven't said, "oh, what a cheesy load of rubbish", to. Carrie Fisher's and Bruno Kirby's portrayal of Marie and Jess were also very good, and did well to support the main characters done by Crystal and Ryan.

However, I feel that this film was a bit too idealistic to me, and that relationships simply are not the way they were portrayed in the film. You wish that relationships result from various coincidences, and although they do to some extent, I feel that love relationships do not form as easily as the film makes it out to be.

Apart from that, I hold no grudges towards the film, and not being a fan of romantic comedies, this film is one that should be watched (the 4-star rating from me is an extremely good rating for a romantic comedy!)! If you want to watch the perfect romantic comedy, this film is for you!

Thanks for reading the review, and I hope you enjoy it!

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS