BrianKoller's Full Review: When Harry Met Sally...
Boy Meets Girl. They are attracted to each other. They become friends. They are supposed to become lovers, but they have too much pride to see it. Will things somehow, sometime work out for them?
If the story seems very familiar, it is because it has been worked to death before, by daytime soap opera characters, in Woody Allen movies, in television series ("Moonlighting", "Cheers", etc).
But the basic plot is so often used because it
works. The premise allows for attractive
casting, sympathetic, believable characters,
and clever romantic dialogue. And the story
hits home, because most everybody has been
'friends' with someone that they would much
rather sleep with.
The formula seems to work best when a comic actor
is cast in the male lead, and an attractive
actress (a new definition of the 'straight man'?)
is cast in the female lead. Paul Reiser in
"Mad About You", Woody Allen in "Annie Hall",
Tom Hanks in "You've Got Mail", and in this case,
Billy Crystal in "When Harry Met Sally". Casting
Fabio or Patrick Swayze wouldn't cut it, since
the film has to be a comedy and not a parody.
Nominated for five Golden Globe awards including
Best Film, "When Harry Met Sally" received only
one Academy Award nomination, for Nora Ephron's
screenplay.
Perhaps the film should have been called
"When Harry [Connick Jr] Met Sales", since the
light jazz soundtrack proved to be his most
commercially successful.
Director Rob Reiner keeps the film tight, so that
the story never sags. Crystal's comic timing
is excellent, and is assisted by the witty lines
that he is given. Meg Ryan is very cute, regardless
of whether her character is confused, annoyed,
angry, or happy. Carrie Fisher and Bruno Kirby Jr
(Where have I seen him before? Oh yeah, "Basketball
Diaries") play the stock 'other couple' capably. (64/100)
From acclaimed director Rob Reiner (The Princess Bride) comes this explosively funny (Newsweek) romantic comedy classic starring Billy Crystal and Meg...More at Buy.com
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