Brandon at Random Reviews

“You know, you may be the first attractive woman that I have not wanted to sleep with in my entire life.”

“That’s wonderful, Harry.”

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When I think of some of my favorite filmmakers for some reason Rob Reiner’s name escapes me in the moment. But it shouldn’t. Not only is he responsible for this movie, this classic “When Harry Met Sally…” but he also made “A Few Good Men”, “Misery”, “The Princess Bride”, “Stand By Me”, and “This is Spinal Tap”, all of which are pretty much what I’d consider perfect movies within their genres. Of course he fell off course with “North” in 1994 and never corrected so that might explain some of his forgottenness.

To many people “When Harry Met Sally…” is just another romantic comedy, which isn’t fair. This movie feels like so much more than that. These characters have more substance, more depth, more bravado than some of the more commonly listed “chick flicks” out there. Meg Ryan might be an actress you more commonly associated with a movie like this, but Billy Crystal is no Hugh Grant, Richard Gere, Matthew McConaughey, or Patrick Dempsey. As a guy, filmmakers act like you’d typically want to be at least somewhat like the leading man. None of those names in their chick flick role spark that level of admiration. I don’t want to be similar in personality to any of them or even friends. Billy Crystal’s Harry character is in the same boat with me not wanting to emulate him so much, but I do think I’d like being friends with him potentially. Maybe. I dunno.

Harry dispenses these off the cuff philosophies mostly to Meg Ryan’s character Sally. He shares thoughts and ideals about men and women and relationships, what kinds of beliefs he has about why men and women behave certain ways toward one another with consideration to their relationship status, etc. and comes off as a bit of an ass. Crystal nails these lines with great humor and Ryan responds with reasonable disgust.

We watch the ins and outs of the two main character’s lives almost exclusively told secondhand from their perspective. This does an excellent job of showing their point of view and understand what their character is either feeling or wants people to think they’re feeling. The movie is set around times when they cross paths or in times adjacent to their encounters with one another to get kind of an update on their lives. The narrative is very strongly delivered this way.

I fucking love this movie guys, it’s so fucking good. I wish I felt this way about more movies. I hope it sneaks its way into your life like it has mine. Enjoy! Or don’t. I’m not your boss.

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