Not a typical romantic comedy.

Rating: Null/10 (4 March 2004)

Dylan Shaver - R000119783 Philosophy 201 - Assignment #3
Headline: They need to make more films like this

When Harry Met Sally Directed by Rob Reiner Starring: Billy Crystal,Meg Ryan
I am not genetically predisposed to romantic comedies. I typically find them to be generic, rote and formulaic. I don't usually have the patience for the same-old same- old boy meets girl, gets, loses, re-gets girl storyline. So I was surprised when I found myself really enjoy When Harry Met Sally.
Since I've been old enough to remember or understand, the romantic comedies I've seen have all been fairly slapstick. I think the first one I actually paid money to see was Shakespeare in Love, which (while it did win an academy award) I found to be rather contrived and predictable. Much later came There's Something About Mary where we find Ben Stiller in the most ridiculous and obscure of unfortunate situations.
In either case, and across the genre, these films are funny and often sentimental but rarely can Joe Public identify with the main characters. While certain aspects of the plot or character development may seem somewhat similar, much of the films' humor relies on fantastical situations.
By contrast, When Harry Met Sally actually revolved around fairly commonplace situations. I feel like I could know couples who have gone through the same sort of relationship roller-coaster.
Writer Nora Ephron does an excellent job capturing the secret and silent longing felt between the two main characters. Crystal and Ryan (who play Harry and Sally, respectively) capture the various neuroses that develop between good friends of different sexes.
Scenes of the film are separated by asides, seemingly real couples in their old age explaining how they met. This contributes more to surprisingly human feel to what is otherwise large-scale Hollywood production.