Film Review: When Harry Met Sally...

When Harry Met Sally... is one of those classic romantic comedies that I just can't tire of seeing. It's nearly as old as I am (having been made three years after I was) and it's something I quite like to watch in the run up to Christmas movies, around November time (mainly because it has a couple of Christmas and New Year's Eve scenes).

It's told across about a decade, beginning when Harry and Sally first meet when she agrees to drive him from Chicago to New York. Harry asserts that men and women can't just be friends, because of the whole sex thing. Although they part ways, their paths keep on crossing and gradually they fall into friendship. Of course men and women can't just be friends, and so from here things start to get a little bit complicated for them.

I don't know how many times I've seen this film, but we didn't have it on DVD until recently. We found an unopened copy in the secondhand bookshop at the train station and I insisted to Mr Click that we get it. When the Blu-ray player stopped working we were looking for a DVD we could watch on my laptop, and When Harry Met Sally... won the toss. Mr Click had never actually seen it before then.

Although by rights it could feel dated now, it doesn't really. Sure the hairstyles and outfits are not quite modern, but considering the way that it jumps ahead in five year blocks it just makes the film feel more real. Whereas lots of romantic comedies feel like real products of their time, When Harry Met Sally... is kind of timeless.

The cast is perfect. For Meg Ryan this goes along really well with Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail; she does these sorts of films really well. Billy Crystal's Harry is the perfect contrast to Meg Ryan's Sally, they're really polar opposites. I also think that Carrie Fisher deserves a special mention because one of my really early viewings of this had me sat there puzzling over who she was because she seemed familiar. It wasn't until some time later that I realised that it was Princess Leia!

My favourite scene is probably the bit where they are watching a film in bed together, well, not quite together, but they're watching it at the same time and discussing it over the phone. It's little moments like that which show just how perfect they are together, as long as they can overcome the thing about the sex gets in the way of being friends.

And of course, what review of When Harry Met Sally... would be complete without mention of that scene. I don't think I need to say anything about it, it speaks for itself!