When Harry Met Sally... (1989)

Director: Rob Reiner
Writer:    Nora Ephron
Cast:       Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher

Harry and Sally have known each other for years, and are very good friends, but they fear sex would ruin their friendship. So in essence, their approach is the complete opposite to the one in Spaced, where two house mates have sex right away so that the sexual tension won't make their time together awkward. 

So what you have here is what should be a very Woody Allen like New-York picture with neurotic characters. The film starts off well with the couple of time jumps starting with the time they were in college and meeting for the first time when they took an eighteen hour car ride from Chicago Uni to NYC. Finally it settles ten years later after both of them just coming out from long-term relationships. The time jumps are done accompanying testimonails from some very old couples. Ten years back they had started off in an abrasive manner disagreeing on the topic of 'Whether a man and woman can just stay as friends without any sex/ sexual thoughts coming in between'.

So even in their thirties they are trying it out in their case as they become thick friends. I felt the film was very interesting up to a point after which I began to lose interest as you know how it is going to end. It wouldn't have been a problem if it takes you there in an interesting manner but it really felt like a chore for me. That said, the famous deli scene where they debate about fake orgasms and Sally proceeds to fake one right there was great, and you do get a Seinfeld vibe about the whole thing. That Deli in NY still has a sign which refers to  the legendary response from an older woman on-looker. The idea for that scene was suggested by Meg Ryan and the line by Billy Crystal. On the whole the film felt like a not very funny extended Seinfeld episode which is a shame considering how well it began. You know what could be a good idea, a film that features just their 18 hour car drive from Chicago to New-York and when the film began I thought it was gonna be a road movie like that with lots of talking.

Overall it is a decent watch without being all that good on the whole. I just went through Meg Ryan's filmography and realized that I hadn't seen any of her films prior to this. So it makes sense that I didn't like it very much since she seems to be perennially involved with wrong sort of rom-coms for me. I need a lot more of self-loathing and neurosis. Rob Reiner went on to make several films with Nora Ephron as his screenwriter. 

Rating: 2.5/5